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107 f-
A U S T E I A.
VOLUME IT.
AUSTRIA.
BY
PETER EVAN TURNBULL, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. IL
SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITION.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
MDCCCXL.
lOJ^.
LONDON
PiiuUid by William Clowes aud Son8»
Stamford Street
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
CHAPTER I.
Principle op this Government. — Divisions of the Empii
Population, according to Numbers and Classes — Nature and
Privileges of Nobility — ^Feudality — Its extent previous to 1*7*73,
and since — Urbarium — its establishment, provisions, and
political ejQfects Page 1
CHAPTER II.
Laws op Property. — ^Their effect on the formation of Social Cha-
racter — General Principles — Rules of Inheritance — Of Legi-
timate, Legitimated, Adopted, and Illegitimate Children —
Pflichttheil, or portion of necessary Succession — Power of
Testamentary Bequest, and of Disinheritance — Harmony of the
Rules of Inheritance with the Principle of the Government
— ^Entails — ^Their different kinds and restrictions . . p. 23
CHAPTER III.
Tenures of Land — Northern Provinces — Nature of Feudal
Tenures and Services — Power and Burthens of the Lords —
Protecting Policy of the Crown — Farms and Villages — General
ObservationB — Southern Provinces — Abatement of Feudality —
Tenants and Lessees— Charters and Government of Municipal
Towns and Cities — ^Provision for the Poor, the Aged, and the
Sick — Actual Condition of the People .... p. 38
VOL. II. h
VI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
Religion. — History of the Ecclesiastical System — Different re-
cognised Forms of Faith — Supremacy of the Crown over all
equally, including the Roman Catholic — General Toleration —
Reforms of Joseph II. — Suppression and Regulation of Monas-
teriesy and Visit of the Pope to Vienna — Number of Clergy of
all Denominations — Roman Catholic Establiskments^-'^upTe''
macy of the Civil Power — Jus Placet! — Episcopal Nominations
— Scheme of Ecclesiastical Grovemment — Diocesan Consistories
and Functionaries — Parochial Benefices — Shrines of Pilgrim-
age — Episcopal Seminaries — Duties of the Clergy — Eccle-
siastical Revenues — ^Tithes — Monastic Orders — Regulations for
their Grovemment — Compulsion to active Duties — Subordina-
tion to the Secular Powers — Laws and Conditions affecting
them — Religious Fund — Non-Romish Subjects — Laws for sepa-
rate Sects —System of Church Grovemment for all — ^Parochial
Ministers, Seniors, Superintendents, and Consistories — Hebrew
Synagogues and Greek Bishops — Singular Imperial Edicts-
Concluding Remarks Page 73
CHAPTER V.
Education. — Observations on the Education of Southern Europ —
of France, and of non- Austrian Germany — Austrian System of
Education — ^Its Objects, Principles, and absolute Uniformity
under every circumstance — Regular Gradation of Schools, and
of scholastic Superintendence — Regulations regarding non.
Romanists — Nature of the Instruction — Popular Schools ; their
System and Government — Gymnasial Schools and Universi-
ties — Expenses of the Educational System — Distinct Institu-
tions — Private Tutors and Private Academies — Ordinances of
Francis IL — Number of Persons receiving Education — Induce-
ments to Education — ^Nature and Effects of the *' Poor Stu-
dent" System in Germany — Its Disfavour in Austria-^Contrast
between the Austrian and other Gorman Universities — Effects
of Austrian Education on the intellectual and moral Charac-
ter , p. 116
CONTENTS. Vll
CHAPTER VI.
Criminal Jurisprudbnce. — State of Criminal Law a general
Evidence of social Character — Austrian Code — Its mild Genius
— Crimes, their Classification and Punishment — ^Misdemeanors,
ditto — Constitution and Gradation of Tribunals — Nature of
Proceedings, Appeals, and Supervisions — Rules of Evidence,
and Privilege of Relations — Strandrecht, or Martial Law —
Power given to Heads of Families — Moral Discipline — Indul-
gent Genius of the System, and its great Peculiarities — Quan-
tum of Crime in different Provinces, and Remarks thereon —
Concluding Obeervations on the whole subject . . Page 15*7
CHAPIER VII.
Morals. — Liability to Error in estimating National Morality —
Excellencies of the Austrian Moral Character — Whence pro-
duced — Early Training — Absence of certain Excitements to
Vice — Nature of the Civil Government— Z)c/ec<« of the Aus-
trian Moral Character— Tendency to personal Indulgences —
Tables of Illegitimate Births in Cities and Provinces, with Re-
marks — Effects of certain Impediments to Marriage, and of
certain Provisions of Law — Institutions of Maternity and Or-
phan Asylums : their Organisation and Effects — Observance of
Parental and Filial Duties, with Remarks on the Laws of In-
heritance—Observance of the Conjugal Duties, and Remarks
on the Laws of Marriage — Facility of Divorce among the Pro-
testants, and its Effects— Concluding Observations . . p. 192
CHAPTER VIII.
Civil Government. — Preliminary Observations — Legislation —
Provincial Assemblies ; their Composition and Functions in the
German and Italian States : also of the Hungarian Diet. Le-
gislative Edicts and Rescripts of the Sovereign — Executive Go-
vernment. Nature and System of the principal Departments at
Vienna — Civil Administrations in the Provinces — Graduated
Organization of the System — Moral Peculiarities— Vnion of
Education, Affections, and Interests in support of the State,
explained — Personal Character of the Princes and of the De-
62
VUl CONTEKTS.
positariee of Power — Number of Civil Servants and of Pen-
sioners — German Bureaucracy — Preparation of Statistical
Tables Page 215
CHAPTER IX.
Public Police. — Its Organization — Expense, excellent Con-
duct, Unobtrusiveness, and Efficiency — Rules as to Foreigners
at the Frontier and in the Interior — Secret Police. — Miscon-
ceptions generally entertained — Police of the Press. — Gene-
ral Principles — Censure on Native and Foreign Literature, and
its EjQfects — Great indulgence as to Foreign Books and Journals
— ^Difficulty experienced by Natives in obtaining permission to
Travel p. 251
CHAPTER X.
Armt. — Various Character of its component Parts — Divisions of
the Empire for Military Purposes — Rules for Levies in each,
and Duration of Service — Numerical Strength— Military Code
— Organization of a Regiment as to Officers, and Details of
Regimental Service — Record of Conduct — Purchase of Com-
missions — Duties of Captain — Greneral Character of Officers —
Privates -— Structure of Courts-martial — Punishments — Pay
and Allowances — Comparison of Infantry and Cavalry —
Rules as to Marriage — Pensions — Hospitals and Asylums —
Reserve of Equipments in Store — Despatch of Levies — Mili-
tary Force in 1814. — Navy. — Its Character and Extent— Port
of Pola p. 214
CHAPTER XI.
Finances. — Public Debt and Currency — Origin and Character
of the Debt — History of the Paper Currency — Finance Patent
of 1811 — Financial Reform of 1816 — Bank of Vienna — Plan
for Reduction of the floating Paper, and its success — Debt bear-
ing Interest— Old and New Debt — Amount of both — Sinking
Fund — Amount of actual liability of the Government — Existing
Currency both Paper and Metallic--rCirculation of the Bank,
and its connexion with the Government . • . .p. 301
CONTENTS. IX
CHAPTER XII.
FiNANCBs continued — Actual Income and Expenditure — De-
tails of both — Various Branches of Income — Direct Taxes —
Land-tax — Its History — Cadaster — House- tax — Tax on Trades
and Professions — Personal Tax — Tax on Inheritances, Ac —
Mode of Collection — Indirect Taxes — ^Tax on Consumable
Articles^Customs — Observations on Contraband — Other Items
of indirect Taxation Pii^ 323
CHAPTER XIII.
Fin AN c B s concluded — Monopolies — Gunpowder — Tobacco —
Salt — Domains — Mines — ^Tables of Gold and Silver produced —
Extraction of Gk)ld at Bockstein, Mehadia, &c. — Quantity of
Gold produced now and at former Periods — Expenses of Pro-
duction, and Accounts of the Mining Department — ^Table of all
Metals produced in the Empire — Revenues of Hungary^ and
Observations thereon p. 345
CHAPTER XIV.
Internal and Forbi/gn Trade. — ^Natural Resources of Austriti —
Value of Exports and Imports, with Observations — Products
and Trade of Hungary, &c. — Chief Articles of Export —
Wool — ^Tobacco'— Silk— Obstacles to Foreign Trade — ^Fluctu-
ation of Duties, and Financial Errors — Defensive System
adopted by Neighbouring States — Physical Difficultiea of
Internal Communication — Greographical Notices « — Rivfirs —
Projected Railroads — Uncommercial Chanater of the Hun-
garians — Steam Navigation of the Danube . . p. 360
CHAPTER XV.
Internal Policy. — Austria considered with reference to her
Internal Condition —Progress of the Crown in establishing the
Monarchical Principle — Its Policy in sustaining that Principle,
and rendering it Popular— Opposite Conduct of Austria and
France, in the reduction of Feudality — Points of Difficulty with
which the Government has to contend — Necessity of Vigilance
in the Correction of Abuses while the Press is controlled —
X CONTENTS.
Point of Weakness in the Body of the Empire — Diversities of
Nationality — Bohemia, Moravia, and Gallicia — Their Political
Condition — Hungary : its Constitution and Social State — The
Lombardo- Venetian Kingdom — ^The Character of its Govern-
ment — Its Condition and Prospects .... Page 384
CHAPTER XVI.
FoREiCrN Policy. — Austria considered with reference to her
Foreign Relations — Her great desire for Peace — Austrian
Policy towards Italy — Conflicts with France for Ascendancy
in the smaller States — Military Occupation of "Countries
threatened with Popular Revolution — Austrian Policy towards
Germany — Formation and present State of the Germanic
Confederation — Difficulties experienced by the Congress of
Vienna — Its Views for a different Organization of Germany —
The Preservation of the Kingdom of Saxony by its sudden
Dissolution — Rivalship of Prussia and Austria — Prussian
Custom-House Confederation — Austrian Policy towards
Russia and Turkey — History of the establishment of Russian
Ascendancy in the Northern Provinces of Turkey, and at the
Mouth of the Danube — ^Political Condition of Moldavia, Wal-
lachia, Bulgaria, and Servia — Anxiety of Austria — Her endea-
vours to oppose Russia by her Diplomacy at Constantinople
and Athens — The Conduct of England, and Apprehension
of Austria as to the Maritime Powers — Reflections on the
Dangers with which England is threatened by a further ad-
vance of Russia towards the Mediterranean — And on the Policy
by which those Dangers may be averted .... p. 40*7
AUSTRIA.
CHAPTER I.
Principlb op thk Governmbnt — Divimons of tlie Empire —
Population, according to Numbers and ClaBses^-Nature and
Privileges of Nobility — Feudality — Its extent previous to 1113,
and since — Urbarium — its establishment, provisions, and
political effects.
The piiziciple of government in its various forms —
that principle which constitutes the basis of its laws,
and which can alone sustain the efficiency and per-
manence of its institutions, is stated by Montesquieu
to be in Republics virtue — ^in Despotisms /ear — ^in
Monarchies honour. But this eminent writers
idea. of despotism was framed on those Asiatic auto-
cracies wherei^ the hereditary privilege of nobility is
unknown; and in treating of monarchies, he had
mainly in view those of France and other kindred
nations, wherein that privilege was excessive. In-
viewing the monarchy of Austria, we find a principle
distinct alike from fear and from honour. It may
be more justly characterised as paternal,"^ or even
* I rather regret to use a term which, as applied to the Aus-
trian- government, has of late been somewhat hackneyed and
VOL. II. B
2 AUSTRIA. [CH.
patriarchal; and were its description to be at-
tempted in a single word, perhaps the most appro*
priate, although still inadequate expression, wou)d
be reverence. It ascribes to the sovereign, as to the
common father, a power theoretically absolute and
uncontrolled, but founded practically on the willing
obedience of those over whom it is exerted. It re-
gards the whole commuidty as members of a com-
mon family ; varying in station, avocations, and fa-
culties,, but all of them objects. alike of the fatherly
solicitude of the ruling power, to which all are
bound in filial, not servile, dependence. Hence it is
the aim of the government, while wielding the
sceptre of nominal autocracy, to conciliate the affec-
tions rather than to excite the apprehensions; to
permit no question of its supreme authority, but to
make the weight of that authority so light and in-
dulgent — so to render it in the popular belief the in-
strument and the safeguard of individual happiness
^— as to convert into a habit and a pleasure that pas-
sive obedience which it ever inculcates as a duty.
This principle of government, however, is in prac-
tice only of partial operation in the Austrian States.
In Hungary, the nobles enjoy, under their ancient
constitution, rights which are paramount to those of
the crown ; and in Italy, a variety of circumstances,
ridiculed; but I know of no other so appropriate, and in tlie
course of the following pages I shall hope to exhibit the justice
of its application.
r.] ' PRINCIPLE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 3
one of which is the entire discrepancy of character
betrreen nations on the north and the south of the
Alps^ indispose the Lombardo-Venetian people, not
specifically to Austrian, but to any Grerman, rule. It
is in the German provinces only that the paternal
principle canine properly contemplated ; neither there
even is it absolutely without limitation. It is not
in any^ part of Austria, as among the Bedouins of the
desert, a plant of native growth, flourishing un-
changed and unimpaired from the earliest ages. It
is a new lH*anch, engrafted on the stem of feudality ;
imd although rapidly and proudly exalting its head
above the rival branches, yet only in proportion as
it stifles and exhausts those of earlier growth does
it become gradually the lord of the forest, and, whe-
ther for good or. for evil, overshadows the land.
Of (he nature and practice of the Austrian mo^
narchy, as thus developed in its German possessions,
it is the object of the present work to attempt some
delineation. Tlie condition and circumstances of
Hungary and of Italy will be occasionally referred
to, but only with a view of elucidating points which
would be otherwise imperfectly understbod. The
earlier notices will be of the population in the dif^
fe'rent parts of the empire ; its political and religious
varieties ; the system of education, and the leading
principles of civil and criminal law by which its cha-
racter is essentially influenced; and generally its
rural, social, and moral condition. From thence I
shall proceed to trace the march of the government
b2
4 AUSTRIA. [CH
in its several departments, and conclude with some
general observations on its policy and prospects, do-
mestic and foreign.
The dominions now subject to the Emperor of
Austria may be divided into three classes: — Ger-
man, Italian, and Hungarian. Of the German
states, the most ancient possessions of the present
family, as archdukes of Austria, are the provinces of
Upper and Lower Austria and the duchies of Styria
and Carniola; to which have been annexed, either
by treaty, intermarriage, or conquest, Carinthia,
Tyrol, the Istrian Littoral (being the country around
Trieste), Moravia, Silesia, the kingdom of Bohemia;
and, finally, the province of Gallicia, which last be-
came Austrian on the division of Poland. To these
may be added Dalmatia ; as, although not really a
German province, but claimed as a dependence of
the Hungarian crown, it belongs more conveniently
to this class of states, from the general similarity of
its mode of government. The states now enu-
merated, which, for the sake of perspicuity, I deno-
minate the German states, may vary somewhat
among themselves in matters of local arrangement ;
but they are all governed under one code of civil
and criminal law, which does not apply to the Italian
and Hungarian territories ; and each state or pro*
vince is administered by a civil governor and coun-
cil, a military commander, and other authorities, all
I.] DIVISIONS OP THE EMPIRE. 5
aoting under . orders from the Imperial German Mi-
nistr)% The It€Uian provinces are those of Lombardy
and of Venice, forming together the Lombai'do -Ve-
netian kingdom. It is governed immediately by a
viceroy resident at Milan ; and its relation with the
German possessions is similar to that of Ireland with
Britain. No custom-house regulations, or fiscal
distinctions, intervene between them ; and the vice-
roy, like the German governors, obeys the orders of
the Imperial ministry. Hungary^ on the other
hand, is a totally distinct kingdom, — distinct, not as
Ireland was from England previous to the Union,
but rather as, until the demise of William IV.,
Hanover was distinct from the British empire, while
still subjected to the rule of the same individual.
She has her constitution* her legislature, her antique
laws, her singular internal administration ; over all
of which the sovereign has no control, and little in-
fluence. The very limited rights and duties of the
crown are exercised through a vice-regal council at
Buda, composed whoUy of Hung^ians, under the
presidency of the Palatine, who is likewise president
of the upper house of Diet, .and the constitutional
intermediary between the crown and its subjects.
This high functionary is, indeed, not necessarily a
native Hungarian, the present one being an imperial
andiduke, a brother of the late emperor : but he is
elected by the Diet itself, from three candidates pro-
posed by the crown ; and, his office being for life, hia
6 AUSTRIA. [CH.
cotastant necessary residence in Hungary, and all his
officers Hungarian, he naturaUy acquires, in a gneat
degree, the habits and feelings of the nation. Since
the year 1520 the Hungarian king has, from the
conjunction of crowns, resided in Austria ; but no
act or order connected with Hungary passes through
a German minister. A distinct chancellor and
chancery are established at Vienna^ for which oflBces
Hungarians only are eligible ; and this chancellor
alone communicates with the sovere^n in his capa-
city of king of Hungary. Transylvania forms a
separate principality to the eastward of Hungary,
and is mudi assimilated to it in the character both
of its institutions and its population. It has a pecu-
liar constitution and legislature, on which its govem-
ment is based , but, from the smaller extent both of
its surface and its inhabitants, the crown exercises a
somewhat greater degree of influence there than is
allowed to it in Hungary. Finally, aloaig the whole
southern and eastern boundaries of Hungary and
Transylvania, where these states border on the
Turkish dominions, or are separated therefrom only
by mers, a long narrow tract ci land is detached for
the {iurpose of defence, the organization of which is
purely military. This constitutes the " Military
Frontier.'' It is divided into four commands, each
administered in chief by a general officer, appointed
at pleasure by the crown, and who acts under orders
from the war department at Vienna.
I]
POPULATION.
With these pireliminary notices I now present cer-
taib tables reveling the amount and classification of
the Bopulation.
PifptiXaiion of the Austrian Empirey (uscofrAing to the Census of
1884.
Hungary
. 11,404,850
Gallicia
• 4,895,889
Bohemia •
4,001,852
Lombardy .
• 2,495,929
Moravia and Silesia
. 2,110,141
Venetian Provinces
• 2,079,588
Transylvania
1,968,485
Anitrftt, liOwer .
. 1,848,65^2
MUtlary Firotitier .
. l,101,2iBl
Styria
928,882
Austria, Upper
846,982
Tyrol
827,635
Carinthia and Carniola .
743,217
Littoral
445,817
Dalmatia
864^983
85,047,533
Of the above, the military class, consisting . of of*
ficera and soldiiers on service^ or <mi half-pay or re-
treat, their wives, families, and servants, amounts to
518,950, leavhig of civil popuktion 34,528,583.
The Marriages in 1884 were
Births •
Deaths .
285,712
. 1,840,354
. 1,028,742
Increase
811,612
8
AUSTRIA,
[CH.
These last numbers show an increase ki the year of
l^- per cent, on the whole population ; which, as far
as we can depend on the next table, would be ri^Jser
less than the average of increase • during the eight
years from 1819 to 1827. The fact is, and I make
the observation here once for all, that every calcula-
tion which includes Hungary and Transylvania is
liable to considerable uncertainty, the oi^anization
of these countries being too imperfect to admit of that
extreme accuracy of return, which is derived on every
subject from the rest of the empire.
Table exhibiting the average Annual Increase of P[^latwn in
the Austrian States^ iaken during, the Nine Years fivm 1819
to 1827, inclusive.
Military Frontier
Gallicia . •
Littoral
Bohemia •
Dalmatia • •
Moravia and Silesia
Transylvania •
Carniola and Carinthia
Austria, Lower
Styria •
Hungary • •
Lombardy * •
Venice .
Austria, Upper
Tyrol . . .
Whole Austrian Empire
ToUl
Anntud
Incteaie.
16,963
69,118
6,588
51,215
4,580
26,775
28,367
8,886
12,988
8,171
95,961
18,318
14,710
5,352
4,589
377,511
Annual
Increase
per Cent.
1
1
1
1
I
1
1
1
1
1
726
687
680
451
447
422
347
295
10§
018
•926
•895
•766
•668
•609
1-193
Number of
Years to
double the
Population.
m
41J
42
48
48
49
52
54
63
684
75
78
91
104
114
5U
1.] POPULATIOK^-CLASSES. 9
From this tebie it ^vrouU appear that the increase
of population depends rather oa the stock of natioa-
iJity than on local drcumatances. Those of tiie Sola-
▼onian race are the most increasing. Such are the six
firstin the preceding list. Selavonians also form more
thsji two-*fifths of tlie inhabitants of Hungary ; but
tlieir prolificness is counterbalanced by the skigular
sterility of the Magyars^ who form the bulk of the
residue ; and besides, they occupy mainly the moun<-
tain regicms, wfamre, emterit paribus^ population does
not so much increase as in the plains. Next to the
Sdavonians stand the Germans ; as is seen in Carin^
thia, Lovrer Austria, Styria, and we may add Tran-
sylvania, in which last the Germans are by far
the most increasing portion of the people. The ex-
ceptions hereto are observed in Upper Austria and
Tyrol, in both of which the mountainous character
of the country inhabited may tend to check increase ;
and it is to be noticed, moreover, that in the Salz-
burg district, the least prolific portion of Upper
Austria, as also in Tyrol, there is much admixture
of blood derived from other races. The Magyars,
or proper Hungarians, allied by their Asiatic origin
to the Turks and Persians, are the least increasing of
all the subjects of liie emperor.
The census annually taken has various objects in
view. One of these is to ascertain the religious
profession of each individual; a point of great im-
portance, inasmuch as the law not only requires
every person to belong to some religious congrega-
10 AUSTRIA. [CH.
tion, but also, in matters of marriage, divorce,
and certain other particulars, contains diffmnt enact-
ments applicable to professors of different creeds.
Another, perhaps still more unportant objeel^ ie the
fonnation. of a roister for military coascriptioQ ; all
individuals of proper age being subject to the chance
of military service, with the exception of those who,
on the score of birth, profession, or station are specie
fically excused ther^om. The nmnber of the per-*
sons, thus exempted, as well as the ground of the
exemption, is therrfore ascertained ; and hence tiie
official returns compiled for the government contain a
specification of the inhabitants of the empire, accord-
ing both to. religious belief and to social station.
The number of civi^an. subjects being given ae
above, at 34,528,583, the first inquiry to be made
regards their relative proportions , in matter of reli-
gious distinction. In a future chapter, devoted espe-
cially to those subjects, I shall explain the nature of
the church government adopted in the empire, and the
condition of its various classes of religious professors ;
but at the present moment, when a mere statement of
numbers is to be given, it is only requisite to explain
the terms which those numbers express. AU deno-
minations of reli^ous creed are tolerated in the em-
pire ; and (with certain exceptions as to Hungary,
and to territories which have been Hungarian) all
may be publicly exercised, provided a sufficiently nu-
merous congregation exist for the formation of a
regular consistory or governing council; but what-
).] RELIGIONS. 11
ever may be the peculiar differences between different
sects, all' are, for the purposes of official registration,
classified under the following prindpal heads :-^
Ist. Roman CathoHcs. Snd. Greek United, jamAy,
congregatioDs which hold the oommunidn of Rome
and acknowledge the Pdpe as their spiritual head, but
in whidi the mass and services of rdigion are cele*
biated in the Gioek km^uage. 3M. Qreek not
United, natnely, members of liie prop^ Greek. church
as it is^ professed in the East, in. the kingdom of
Greece, and in Russia. 4tfa. Luthienm Proiestant*,
who hold the ocnfession of Augsburg, dth. Calvinr
utie Proiestante, who hold the confession t>f G^eneva.
Gth. UfdtarioM^yfbo, as a separate body, exist Almost
exdusiyely in Transyhanid. 7tii. Jew;f. The re*
spective numbers of these may be seen in thefollow-
ing official enumerations—
Population according to Religions {exclusive of the Military
Class). 1834.
Roman Catholics .
. 24,431,440
Greek United
. 3,375,840
GreelLS not United
. 2.722,083
Lutheran Protestants
. 1,189,«17
Calvinistic Protestants .
. 2,150,721
Unitarians' •
45,399
Jews . • •
613,283
34,528,583
12 AUSTRIA. [CH.
Of this return, however, notwithstanding its offi-
cial character, I have good reason to doubt the aoeu*
racy. The population of Hungary and Transylvania,
amounting together to more than thirteen miUions,
forms too large a portion of the geneml mass to
justify entire confidence in the figures. The paro-
chial and other registers in thoise countries are ex-
tremely irregular ; and the returns, made chiefly on a
presumed approximation to the truth, by the Ronaan
Catholic clergy, exhibit the number of Protestants
as considerably less than I believe it really to be.
My impression is, that in Hungary and Transylvania
alone there are, of the two confessions of Augsburg
and Geneva, nearer four millions of members than
three ; and although the Protestants in the other parts
of the empire are comparatively few, yet in Bohemia
also they are in smnewhat considerable numbers.^
The next statistical enumeration to be made, is that
of the individuals exempted from military conscription
on the ground of birth or of social station. These
stand in the official tables for 1834 as follows : —
• • I.
Nobles, male, and including about 5600 who
are in holy orders • • • « 885,104
Clergy of all denominations who are not noble 68,473
Beampte an4 Honoradores * • • 96,598
Foreigners • 27,862
578,032
With a view to the proper understanding of the
1.] POPULATION— CLASSES. 13
above enumeration, a brief explanation may be re-
quisite, especially as some of the terms are little
known beyond the Austrian dominions.
In Austria, as in every part of Germany^ the nobles
form a distinct order in the state, with more or less
of pre->emineQce and prerogative according to the
greater or less conservation of feudal privilege. In
Hungary, for instance, nobles alone can be proprie-
tors of land, and hol4 offices in the public adminis-
tration ; but this is not the case in the German or
Italian provinces of the empire ; and as, under the
Austrian sceptre generally, all stations in the army,
the church, and (with the exception of Hungary) in
the civil government, are open alike to ali^ the pecu*
liar prerogatives of nobility consist in little more than
some legal distinctions of form in the commencement
of actions at law, and the admissibility, without offi-
cial character, to the court of the sovereign ; together
with exemption in the German, but not in the Italian
provinces, from military conscription, and from cer^
tain disagreeable but necessary offices in municipal
and districtual administrations. Among the nobles
themselves are several gradations — ^that of the princes,
or Furstenstand ; the counts, or Grafemtand ; the
barons, or Freyhemtand (which three are compre-
hended for certain purposes under the general term
of Herrenstand) ; and, finally, the Ritterstand,
which includes the great body of untitled nobles,
who, as qualified to bear arms, answer to the English
14 AUSTRIA. [CH.
denomination of "gentlemen*' in its former strict
and appropriate sense. The union of all these, the
Herrenstand with the Ritterstand, constitute the
Edektand^ or " nobility ;" but no one of the separate
grades thereof enjoys any privilege over the others,
save in points of pei'sonal dignity aild etiquette, and
the capability of holding certain high nominal offices
of ceremony about the person of the emperor.* The
sovereign raises at his pleasure plebeians to the rank
of nobles ; and among the more recent elevations are
included many of the wealthier bankers, merchants,
and manufacturers, and some also of the Hebrew re-
ligion ; ivhile, on the other hand, as nobility, whether
titled or untitled, goes forward to all descendants
alike, it happens that many nobles are reduced to
poverty, and are found to fill very humble statxons.f
* It often occurs, particularly in the northern provinces, that
the loid of a large domain has great judicial functions ; but these
are rights of maiw)rial possepsion, not of noUe rank. They cannot
be exercised arbitrarily or capriciously, and may be compared to
the powers vested, until three or four years ago, in the bishop of
Durham, by whose officers, and in whose name alone, criminal
and civil justice was administered and executed, through the ex-
tent of the diocese.
t One of the inns in a place where we made some stey waa kept
until lately by a baron, whose daughters officiated as chamber*
maids. Yet they had all the prerogatives and pretensions of
nobility. They could only be sued in action before the tribunals
as nobleSj and the young baronesses declined offers of marriage
from respectable non-noble tradesmen, with whom, however, they
I.] POPULATION — CLASSES. 15
The other privileged or favoured classes are the
clergy of all denominations, and the Beampte and
Honoratiares. The legal definition of these terms is
this : the Beampte are those who hold of&ce equal at
least to the rank of burghers, under the government,
the municipalities, or the manorial jurisdictions.
The Henoratiores are, in strictness, griaduates in oi^
of the three faculties of law, medicine, and philosophy.
In point of fact, however, the term is loosely and
largely applied, to comprehend all pei*sons of liberal
education and pursuits ; and thus artists, schoolmas-*
ters, and persons living without profession on their
private income, are frequently included by the paro*
chial registrars in the list of Hanoratiores.
The numbers and classes of the population being
thus set forth, the next considerations are those which
regard their general condition, and the character of
the government by which they are ruled. In attempt-^
ing an imperfect delineation of these difficult subjects,
it will be my endeavour fairly to express the results of
my own observations and impressions ; and I shall re-
joice should I have in any respect the means of throw-
ing a true light on some points, wherein, as it appears
to me, error has prevailed. The idea usually enter-
were charged by the scandal of the place with having lived on the
most amicable terms, so long as they were not reduced to the in-
dignity of a mesalliance.
16 AUSTRIA. [CH>
tidned of the Austrian rule has been that of simple
monarchy ; and as far as simple monarchy consists in
the umon of the legislature with die executive autho-
rity in the person of the sovereign, the idea is, tbeoreti-
cally at least, not erroneous: but the prindples on
which that rule has been wielded for more than a cen-
tury, the checks by which it is practically restrained,
and the machinery of its benign and gentle operation
on those who are its tsubjects, are points which may
not have been so correctly understood. It has been
sometimes asserted, that an arbitnury government has
allied itself with an intolerant church, for the purpose
of ke&fing down the springs of national improvement ;
of nullifying the effects of education ; and even of en-
couraging personal immorality, for the purpose of
perpetuating the abjectness of servility. Much has
been said of a secret police, controlling public action,
and invading domestic privacy ; of an oppressive re-
venue, exacted by militaiy force from an impoverished
population ; and, finally, of the exclusion of all the
literature of foreign countries which might be the
means of disseminating information and improvmient
These charges, and such as these, the candid observer
win find to be always greatly exaggerated, and,
for the most part, absolutely unfounded. In no
country of Europe has national improvement in its
most important branches gone on more steadily and
decidedly during the last twenty years, than in the
Austrian German Possessions ; and where there is a
I.] MARCH OF INTERNAL POLICY. 17
general and elastic tendency to amelioration ; where
agriculture, manufactures, and national wealth ad-
vance; where the bulk of the people are contented
and enjoying, thriving almost universally in worldly
prosperity, save in localities which defy the labours of
man ; where education is held forth gratuitously to all ;
where the milder and gentler qualities of character
abound ; the poorer classes are honest and sober, and
crimes of malignity and bloodshed are rarely heard of;
where, finally, the Princes of the reigning family are
regarded with a degree of personal affection unseen
elsewhere in Europe; it seems difficult to suppose
that the government is very defective in the discharge
of its duties, or ill calculated for the well-being of the
people. It is true that the government has brought
on itself much misrepresentation by its great, and in
some respects, very unprofitable aversion to pub-
licity. Having considerable internal difficulties to en-
counter in its march of general improvement, arising
partly from aristocratical opposition, partly from finan-
cial disorder, its great desire has been tranquillity;
and it has been rather content to bear in silence the
nusrepresentations of error abroad, tiian to provoke
discusdon by publishing refiitations. But even this
charge of aversion to publicity is true only with great
qualifications. In statistical matters, and in other d&*
tails of internal administration, save only such as relate
to the army and the finances, abundant information ex-
ists in excellent local and general publications ; and
the time is fast approaching when the state of the fi-
VOL. II.* c
18 AUSTRIA. [CH.
nances also will be published by authority. This is,
perhaps, wisely delayed until the system shall hare
been more ameliorated ; and many of those abuses and
vices of practice removed, which are derived from an
antique organization, from the pressure of wars deemed
necessary for the preservation of the national indepen-
dence ; or, finally, from an injudicious legislation.
Austria has committed great errors, commercial and
financial — of which I believe her rulers to be now
fully aware ; but they seek to apply the remedies cau-
tiously though effectually, and without incurring the
danger of violent or rapid alteration.
In tracing the march of Austrian internal policy,
we observe, as the first great obstacles to national im-
provement which the government have had to over-
come, the feudal institutions established, until a com-
paratively recent period, in all their iron rigour in
Hungary and Bohemia, and with more or less force in
every German province. It was vain to attempt to
better the condition of the people, while one law ex-
isted for them, and another for the nobles — while the
peasants bore all the taxation of the state, and were
bound to work indefinitely for their superiors. In all
the southern German provinces this system of arbitrary
oppression gradually yielded to the power of the crown;
but in Hungary, Bohemia, and Moravia^ (to which
may be added Gallicia, although then a province of
Poland,) it continued unbroken until the year 1773.
About that year a general rising of the peasants
against the lords took place in Bohemia and Moravia,
1.] MARCH OF INTERNAL POLICY. 19
and a partial one in Hungary. The crown may have
viewed these movements with complacency. At all
events they were put down with mildness and mercy :
and the sovereign seized with eagerness the opportunity
of mtroducing by ordinances in 1776, and subsequent
years, that Urbarium,* or Rural Code, which, for the
first time, conferred fixed rights upon the people.
Previous to that most important measure, the cultiva-
tors or peasants, in those principal members of the
monarchy, were quite at the mercy of the lords. The
number of robots, or days of forced labour to be
done on the lord's lands, depended on the mere will of
himself or of his agents, the Sabbath being the only day
of legal exemption from compulsory work. The
other dues and services were all equally unlimited in
fact, if not in appearance ; for, even if they were, as in
some respects was the case, defined by compact or
usage, complaints of infringement could only be heard
in the court of the Herrschaft or Manor, where the
lord himself or his paid fiscal was the sole expounder
and executioner of the law. The cultivators could
not even remove from their residences, save with the
lord's permission ; and thus were absolutely adscripti
gleba. It was in vain that this oppressed people
stretched their hands towards the crown for protection.
Its power was too feeble to compete with the auto-
cracy of feudal domination. Several times, especially
* Urbariam, urbarialis— Latinizations from the German word
iir6ar, cultivable.
C2
20 AOSTRIA. [CH.
in 1772, the sorereign streiraoiisly urged on the Bo-
hemian and Hungarian lords the expediency of limit*
ing and defining the robots, services, and dues, so as
to leave to the peasant some portion of time for the
cuhivalion of his own plot of land. But these endea-
vours were fruitless, until at length the terror occa-
ffloned by the peasant insurrections afforded to the
crown the opportunity of acting vigorously on its own
sense of right. The enactments of the Urbarium vary
in smaller details, as applied to different localities ; the
endeavour having been to adapt it, as far as posable,
to existing circumstances. Its general principles,
however, are alike for all. It fixes the property, the
rights, and the services of the peasant. The robots
are defined, with certain modifications, according to
the extent of the peasant's holding. The maximum
yielded by any one,* in Bohemia and ^oravia, is the
labour of one man for three days in the week, which
days must be defined as regards each peasant, so that
no one can be called on to attend but upon the proper
days; and the service of one day with horses or cattle
is equivalent to two days without. The peasant yield-
ing these and his other services, all of which are
defined, is confirmed by the Urbarium (improved and
extended by tiie subsequent edicts) in the hereditary
* These peasants must be understood rather in the sense of our
earlier copyholders, many of them holding considerable land, and
working it by domestic and hired labour. The nature of these
holdings will be presently explained.
I.] MARCH OF INTERNAL POLICY. Ql
possession of his own land, and in the right of free dis-
posal thereof, and removal therefrom; and various
precautions are taken to protect him from the oppres-
sion and caprice of the lords. The measure itself was,
of course, unpalatable to the nobles ; but dread of
further evil from the peasants induced them to yield
it a reluctant acquiescence ; and, from that time for-
ward to the present, a series of additional improve-
ments has been gradually and quietly introduced, all
tending to raise the condition of the towns and pea-
sants, and to lower that of their superiors. It is
natural that this levelling system should be disliked by
those who conceive themselves the suflFerers by it, and
especially that the nobles should complain of imposts
which now fall mainly on themselves. On the feudal
principle, which still prevails in Hungary, the nobles
are subject to no direct taxation on their lands, move-
ables, or persons ; while in Bohemia, and the other
German provinces, such has been the effect of subject-
ing all to an equality of imposts, that, although the
average taxation of the empire is only equal to 7*. 6rf.
per head, the government draws in direct taxes from
the pocket of Prince Liechtenstein alone, in regard of
his domains and possessions, more than 15,000/. ster*
ling per annum. The policy of the government is
directed constantly, though cautiously, against this
body of arbitrary, though high-minded and generous
nobles ; and it is no matter of surprise that by them
its march should be represented as unpopular. Far
different, however, is the feeling with the middling
22 AUSTRIA. [CH.
and longer classes. These now cling to the crown
as to their best protector and ally ; they are attached
to it from interest and from feeling ; and so will they
continue to be, until, exalted by its means high above
the ruins of feudality, their accumulated prosperity^
intelligence, and freedom, shall enable them to direct
in their turn against the crown itself those augmented
powers, which now in their infancy they would level
only against their provincial superiors.
II.] 23
CHAPTER II.
Laws of Phopbrty— Their effect on the formation of Social Cha-
racter — General Principles — ^Rules of Inheritance — Of Legi*
timate^ Legitimated^ Adopted, and Illegitimate Children —
Pflichttheil. or portion of necessary Succession — Power of
Testamentary Bequest, and of Disinheritance — Harmony of the
Rules of Inheritance with the Principle of the Government
— ^Entails — Their different kinds and restrictions.
The maxims which prevail iu a nation in respect to
the tenure and descent of property are among the
most influential of those which operate on the social
system. The restrictions of inheritance by primoge-
mture> or the free division of property among heirs —
the power of a father to withhold, at his own will, the
succession from his offspring, or the right of that off-
spring thereto in defiance of paternal displeasure —
the admowledgment of faculty to inherit exclusively
in children born in wedlock, or the admission to simi-
lar privilege of such as are of irregular birth : all
these constitute so many active principles in the for-
mation of moral character, which may be traced
in their operation through the whole scheme and
conduct of life. They are, reciprocally, effect and
cause : they testify of the past, as evincing the genius
24 AUSTRIA. [CH.
of generations now no more; and they prophesy of
the future, as exhibiting a niain foundation of thought
and feeling in those which are to come.
Owing to the greater prevalence of family entails,
the landed properties, comprising manorial lordship
and private estate, are of far greater extent in the
northern than the southern provinces of the empire ;
and a very large portion of the soil in Bohemia,
Moravia, and Gallicia, is thus held on tenures,
which prevent its alienation, and limit its inheritance
to special individuals. These, as exceptive though
prevalent cases, will be best considered after the gene-
ral principles of the law have been explained ; and in
the mean time it will suffice to observe, that it is the
settled policy of the crown gradually to break down
such family entails as now exist, and to prevent their
creation for the future.
Of the law, as applied in all the German pro*
vinces,* the first rule may be said to be the equ€tl
character of all description of property. Except as
to some very minor details, which it is superfluous
here to enumerate, no distinction exists between real
and personal estate; lands and money, immoveables
and moveables, of every description, being subject to
the same ntiaxims of tenure, transfer, and inheritance.
The second rule is the equfdity of right in all sub*
jects of the empire to hold and dispose of property,
without distinction of class or religion. The Hebrew
* In Hungary, and in the Lombardo -Venetian kingdom, the
rules of tenure and inheritance rest on the peculiar laws of those
states respectively.
II.] LAWS OF PBOPERTY. 25
and the Christian, the peasant and the noble, have, in
this respect, a parity of right. The suits and services
due to the feudal superior arise from the possession or
usufruct of the soil, not from the character of the cul-
tivator ; and the peasant, purchasing land, acquires all
the rights and privileges which are inherent ther^.
Males and females, moreover, on attaining the age of
twenty-four (the period of legal majority), are equally
competent to inherit, possess, and alienate. The wife
retains, unless under the limitations of special wo-
tract, her full right over her separate property, except
that its usufruct is in the husband for their common
benefit while they live together. She may or may
not be the copartner of her husband in any commer-
cial or other undertaking ; and, except when specific-*
ally or inferentially pledged to that effect, her separate
estate is not liable for her husband's separate debts.
A third great principle of law is that which permits
all persons to dispose, by will, of one specific portion
only (generally one moiety) of whatsoever they pos-
sess, restricting the inheritance of the otilier portion
absolutely to the natural heirs in fixed jMropcntions
and degrees. To understand the bearing of these
very important proviedons, it will be well first to state
the rules of inheritance as they apply to the effects of
persons who die intestate^ In such case all property,
moveable and immoveable, descends in equal shares to
all the children of the deceased^ male and female,
alike ; and when any such child has died previous to
the intestate leaving offspring, then the offspring re-
ceive among them their parents* portion. Where
26 AUSTRIA. [CH.
children and grandchildren, or their descendants, fidl,
the law admits the ancestral relatives, and collaterals
sprin^ng therefrom, as far as the fifth generation
upwards, without allowing any distinction of sex.
Thus both the parents are the equal heirs of the child
dying intestate and without offspring ; but where one
parent only survives, that one receives the moiety,
and the other moiety passes to the heirs of the de-
ceased, namely, the brothers and sisters of the intes-
tate. Beyond the collaterals springing from the fifth
ascending generation, no right of inheritance is ad-
mitted; and the property passes, according to the
local rules of each province, either to the crown
direct, or to some public council or fiinctionary au-
thorised to receive the lapsed successions. The wife
being competent to hold property independently of
her husband, and her rights over that which she pos-
sessed in her single state being in no wise dinunished
by her marriage, except in so far as they may have
been the subject of special contract, her separate pro-
perty passes by descent or ascent to her separate
heirs ; but in all cases of intestacy, where contracts
do not interfere, the surviving husband, or wife has
some interest in the estate of the deceased. Where
no legal heirs appear within the limited degrees, that
interest comprehends the entire inheritance. It is
limited to one-fourth <^ it in cases where heirs
ascending or collateral only exist ; but where the in-
testate has left children or descendants, the surviving
parents can claim no part of the inheritance in fee, but
are entitled to a life-interest only in a portion of it.
II.] LAWS OP PROPERTY. 27
equal to that of one of the children ; this portion
being further limited to a fourth only where the
children are less than three.
Besides the ofispring of lawful wedlock, the law
confers equal rights of succession upon two other
descriptions of persons, namely, legitimated children
and adopted chidren — a species of indulgence which
may be considered as of very dubious morality. Le-
gitimated children are those which, having been bom
out of legal wedlock, are rendered legitimate, either
by removal of any formal impediment which may have
rendered the marriage in itself invalid — by the {»t)of
that one of the parties at least had been unconscious
of the existence of any such impediment— or, which
is by far the most frequent case, by the subsequent
marriage of the parents. There is one other mode in
which children may be legitimated, namely, by grant of
the sovereign ; but the legitimacy thus acquired confers
right merely against the property of the inmiediate
parents ; whereas, that resulting in either of the former
modes is complete as regards the succession to all
ancestral and cdlateral relatives. The only point in
which these fully legitimated children are inferior to
those born in wedlock, is their incapacity to inherit
property entailed on promigeniture, or otherwise spe^
cially limited. Adopted children may be one or
several ; and they may be so adopted by persons of
either sex, provided they be not, by admission to holy
orders or otherwise, legally devoted to celibacy. The
piincipal modes of adoption are these : the adopting
28 AUSTRIA. [CH.
party roust be at least fifty years of age^ and must be
fully eighteen years older than the party adopted. If
the latter be a minor, the consent of parents or guardians
will suffice, subject to the ratification of such consent
by the party himself on the attainment of majority ;
and the act of adoption haying been duly enregistered,
the parties stand thenceforward to each other in the
fiill relation of parent and child. The adopted child,
however, forfeits no one of his natural rights, while
he acquires those of adc^tion. On the one hand, he
retains his original name and arms, and his right of
succession to the property of his ancestors; on the
other, he assumes, in addition, the name of his adopt-
ing parent, and acquires, therewith, as ample a right
to all inheritances devolving from the relations thereof,
as if he were his lawfiil son. In two points only he
is subject to restriction : he may not bear the arms
of his adopting parent without a royal license, and
he cannot succeed to property limited by entail or
blood.
Next to be mentioned are the rights of illegitimate
children, among whom are included, under certain
circumstances, those bom in wedlock, provided proof
of spurious origin be adduced by legal proceedings,
commenced within a certain short period. In all
cases of illegitimacy, the question of paternity, if
denied) is matter for legal inquiry ; the mere decla-
ration of the mother not being held sufficient for its
establishment. Illegitimate children have equal right
with those born in wedlock to the actual property
II.] LAWS OF PROPERTY. 29
of tbeir mother^ but to that only. They inherit
neither from the father^ nor even from the mother's
ancestral or collateral relatives, unless where the
property has devolved in full unlimited right on the
mother herself. The property of an illegitimate
child, dying intestate and without descendants, passes
to the mother, or to her ancestral relatives.
Such are the rules of succession bearing on intes*
tate property of every description ; and, as has been
before intimated, it is only to a certain extent that
these rules can be interfered with, by the faculty of a
testator to dispose of his property by will. The
principle of law in this respect is, that children and
other descending heirs are absolutely entitled to one'-
half J and ascending heirs to one-third^ of that portion
which they would have respectively received in the
event of the deceased having died intestate. This
fixed or reserved part is termed the pflichttheil, or
obligatory portion ; and over the surplus only, after
such pflichttheils have been duly ascertained, do the
legacies of the vnll take effect. It is competent for
any person interested to require a legally supervised
administration of the estate; and every species of
property, moveable and immoveable, (with the excep-
tion of lawfully-constituted entails,) having been car-
ried into the mass, the pflichttheils must be first as-
certained and provided, before any legacy can be
demanded. All gifts which are to take effect after
the death of the donors are regarded as legacies ; and,
80 AUSTRIA. [CH.
in order further to protect the lawful successors from
the evasions of parental predilection, it is a legal
maxim that no one, having offspring, may, during
his life, dispose by gifk of more than one-half of his
effects ; so that if it can be proved, that any donation
did exceed in value the moiety of the property pos-
sessed at the time by the donor, the donation be-
comes void, and its amount must be refunded.* En-
actments such as these can, indeed, be scarcely ever
rendered operative in practice ; and, if they could,
they would probably tend to the working of gross
injustice. They form a part of that multitude of
legal refinements, by which the Austrian civil code,
in its zeal to over-regulate, seeks to adjust all the
conflicting relations of person and property, and
which, if ever made the instrument of judicial pro-
cess, could only lead to endless litigation ; but the
fact is, that they are seldom resorted to, save as the
preliminaries of private compromise and arrangement.
All laws, of this description, are chiefly to be regarded
as the expression of general feelings and, in that
sense only, as the rule of individual conduct. Thfe
law of England, while limiting the inheritance of
the real estate of intestates to the eldest son, has not,
for the last two centuries, deprived the proprietor of
* Money advanced in the lifetime of the deceased for the por*
tion of daughters, or the discharge of dehts due hy a son who has
ttained his majority, is reckoned in diminution of pflichttheil,
but advances otherwise made to children and others are consi^
dered as gifts, and cause no diminution in the pflichttheil.
II.] LAWS OF PROPERTY. 31
the power to dispose of it otherwise by will; but
modern feeling has been formed by the maxims of
ancient law^ and thus we perceive that in the descent
of our landed estates the principle of primogeniture
is generally observed, by those who are wholly free
to act on the impulse of their own inclination.
But Austrian legislation is always true to its great
principle of sustaining regularity and order^ by the
firm support of existing authority. While protecting
the rights of children, it so qualifies those rights, as
to preserve, in full efficacy, the parental power.
There are certain cases in which all claim to inhe-
ritance and to legacy is, ipso facto y forfeited by mis-
conduct ; one of which is the proof of nmlicious in-
jury done to the life, honour, or property of the
deceased, unless it be shown that pardon was ob-
tained before his death. There are other cases in
which it is optional for the father, by testamentary
declaration, to disinherit, and thus to deprive his
child or children of pflichttheil ; either on the ground
of public discredit, or where a child has " renounced
Christianity," or been sentenced for crime to per-
petual or twenty years' imprisonment ; or for what
may be tenned the private neglect of the moral and
filial duties. Thus a child may be deprived by his
father of any share in the inheritance on the ground
of excessive profligacy — of having incurred excessive
debts — and, finally, of his having refused succour to
his parent in a state of helpless poverty. The facts
on which the legality of the disinheritance depends
32 AUSTRIA. [CH.
may indeed be rendered matter of judicial inquiry ;
and after the decease of a parent has made it no
longer a point of policy to support his authority, the
courts will incline favourably to the claimant ; but
still the claims of co-heirs will be heard — litigation
and compromise will ensue — and thus the power of
testamentary disinheritance, even where it is subse-
quently mitigated or reversed, becomes a v«ry ef6-
cient means of parental control. The government,
in the mean time, Hakes care that public pauperism
be not. increased by these disinheritances ; as in all
cases some provision for the support of life is awarded
out of the estate to him who forfeits his pflichttheil ;
and it often occurs that the grand-children are allowed
to inherit the portion of which their father may have
been deprived.
These general rules of inheritance appear to har-
monise well with the genius of the Austrian Govern-
ment. They encourage industry and support the
parental authority, by the faculty of free disposal by
will, as to, at least, one moiety of the property ac-
quired, and the power even of entire disinheritance,
in cases of gross transgression ; while, on the other
hand, they protect the offspring from parental caprice,
by the general assurance of the pflichttheil. In re-
ference to the political effect of property in masses,
they aim at the adoption of a middle course, between
undue accumulation and excessive division : and were
the real power of the sovereign, as to the enactment
II.] LAWS OF PROPERTY. 33
of law, commensurate with his supposed or theore-
tical right, the whole property of the empire would
probably be subject to these general principles of
succession. The policy of the crown aims steadily
in this direction. Its tendency is invariably to abate
feudal limitation and privilege of every description ;
but safety and wisdom require that its progress,
although steady, should be gradual and cautious ;
and hence the law recognises limitations and
entails of various descriptions, the nature of which,
as they extend over a large proportion of the lands of
the empire, it is now requisite briefly to explain.
The first of these is the simple entail (Jldei com-
missariache substitution) which it is competent for
all persons to create, and which may extend over pro-
perty moveable or immoveable, money, jewels, land,
or any other species of hereditament. The pflicht-
theils having been first set apart as sacred fit>m all
interference, the testator may limit the successive
inheritance of the rest of his property to any number
of persons actually alive, and onward to those of one
generation not yet born. Where the property con-
sists of moveables only, he may extend the limitatioii
to one generation fiirther ; but with the first inheritor,
in either of these unborn generations respectively, the
limitation absolutely ceases, and the property becomes
free.
The second species of entail, the famtUen'fidei
commissi or simply the fidei comniiss, is of a much
more permanent and rigorous nature. It may not
VOL. II. D
34 AUSTRIA. [CH.
now be created without especial licence from the
crown, and this licence has of late years been invaria*
bly refused ; but the aristocratical prindples of former
times caused it then to be much adopted, and it now
extends over most of the largest estates, especially in
the northern provinces. The object of the fidei com-
miss being to sustain the family dignity, the precise
rule of succession depends on the will of the founder ;
but of those now existing, three may be mentioned
as chiefly prevailing. First, and by far the most usual,
is the prknogenitur, wherein the estate descends to
the eldest male heir of the actual possessor ; and, if
such faiL in the direct line, then to the nearest male
heir in the first collateral line — secondly, the majaraty
wherein die succession remains in the first line, or, in
other words, in the descendants of the first successor
of tiie founder, so long as any male be found therein ;
but the oldest in tfears within that line, be he brother
or undbe, or more distant relative of the last pos-
sessor, inhmte in preference to any junior in years,
ailliough he be the immediate son^-^thirdiy, the sento^
raU which grants' the succession to the oldest in years
oi any of the descendants of the original founder,,
without distinction of lines, and under which, conse-
quently, a property may pass to a very distant cousin,
if he be only the oldest in years, in preference to all
the intermediate relations.* In some few properties
* There are instances of this most inconvenient species of
tenure in various parts of Germany, but they are comparatively
rare.
H.] LAWS OF PROPERTY. 35
females are allowed to succeed in common with males,
or in preference to males of a more distant degree ;
but these are rare and exceptive cases. Under all
the varieties of entailed succession, among which in-
deed the majorat and the seniorat form but a very
small minority, the general principles are the same.
The actual possesscxr has merely the life interest ; and
any of those following in the entail may require,
through the tribunals, an account of tiie management ;
or, if requisite, the appointment of a curator, who re-
ceives the products and hands them over to the party
entitled to them. The actual possessor, on the other
hand, may, without ccmsent of heirs, but imder the spe-
cial decree of the proper tribunal, charge the estate
with debt to the extent of one-third of its legally as-
eertained value ; with the obligation, however, of pay-
ing off annually five per cent, of the capital borrowed,
besides the regular or agreed interest. Beyond this
extent the estate may not be charged. The next in-
coming heir can only create new debt as antecedent
debts have been relieved, so that two-thirds of the [pro-
perty always remain free ; and, even in regard to the
mortgaged third, the creditor has no recourse upon
the land, but on its moveable produce only. With the
express consent of all existing parties, who, under any
contingency, might become the heirs of the entail, to-
gether vrith that of a legal curator, appointed to watch
the interests of minors and of future descendants (the
whole sanctioned by legal decree), it is competent for
the possessor to exchange land for land, or even to
d2
36 AUSTRIA. [CH.
convert the whole or a part of it into money or move-
able effects, which then follow the law of the entail.
Such occurrences, however, are very rare. The re-
quisite consent of parties and sanction of tribunals can
seldom be obtained; the more especially as, in the
event of the p^roperty being so converted into money,
the possessor, under sanction of the court, acquires the
right, in lieu of charging one-thmi of the land with
debt, actually to take possession of one-third of the
cash ; with the mere legal obligation of restoring it at
he rate of five per cent, per annum. Where no suc-
cessors to the entail exist, or where all such agree to
its extinction, and where, on legal grounds, the birth of
no future heir can be presumed, it is competent for a
tribunal, after many citations and other formalities, to
cut off the limitations ; in which case the property
becomes free in the hands of the actual possessor; and,
should he not dispose of it and leave no legal heir^ it
falls, like all other property, either to the crown or to
the provincial functionaries appointed to receive all
lapsed successions.
In almost every country some period is defined, at
the expiration of which the undisputed possession of
property is held to constitute legal right. The extreme
period so fixed by the Austrian code is forty years in
regard to entailed estates, and thirty years generally in
regard to other immoveable property ; but with this
important qualification, that, where the property, with
the name, &c., of the proprietor, is recoi'ded in the
public official registers of the province, an undisputed
!•] LAWS OF PROPERTY. 37
possession for three years only is a bar to all adverse
action. A special commercial code, into the details
of which it is not my purpose here to enter, regulates
the dealings and dependences of merchants and traders ;
and, in regard to moveable property, not affected by
the provisions of that code, the general rule is, that
actions must be brought within three years from the
time when the right is asserted to ensue. To these
general dispositions of the law there are many excep-
tions in favour of the crown, of corporations lay and
clerical, and of persons absent from the country, or
incapacitated by circumstances from preferring legal
claims; but a specification of these, as well as the
peculiar enactments which relate to mortgages and
trusts, would be foreign to a work which aims rather
at exhibiting general principles in their action on
private character.
38 [cH.
CHAPTER III.
TeDures of Land — Northern PnnrmceB — ^NatiiK of Feudal
Teauies and Senrices^-Power and BmUiens of the Loidi^-*
Protecting Policy of tlie Crown — Farms and ViUag^a — General
Obaervadons — Southern Provinces — ^Abatement of Feudality —
Tenants and Lessees — Charters and Government of Municipal
Towns and Cities — ^Provision for the Poor, the Aged, and die
Sick — ^Actual Condition of the People.
The prindples of law which regulate the possession
and transmission of property having be^i stated in
the last chapter, the present one will contain a review
of the general condition of the people, including some
observations on the character of the municipal com-
munities and of the institutions for the relief of
poverty and sickness.
It has been seen that an equal right to the acquire-
ment and possession of landed estate is extended to all
denominations of subjects, noble and peasant, Hebrew
and Christian. Feudal superiority, as far as it now
exists,*' is inherent in the possession of the soil, not in
the character of the possessor : but, as has been be-
fore intimated, a great proportion of the land is
rendered inalienable by entails ; — ^that which is not so
«
* Hungary is an exception to this rule, as well as Transylvania,
and some districts which have heen Hungarian.
lU.] TENURES OF LAND. 39
limited, especially in the most extensive and important
provinces, is still possessed in large masses ;-;— and thus
in Austria, as in most of the other European nations,
the superior rights of property are held by few, and
exercised over many. To reduce these rights as fiu* as
they retain their ancient feudal nature, and to with-
draw the subordmate from the dominioD of the lord,
has been the steady policy of 4he government, espe-
dally during the last century. Having established in
all parts imperial judicial authorities, together with
councils of civil administration in each province under
the name of the Lande^Helle,* and in every district in
each province under that of the Kreiean^t, the crown
has sought, by one enactment following another, each
apparently involving some point only of minor im-
portance, gradually to substitute the jurisdiction of
its own functicmaries for that of the manorial superiors.
Its firm and persevering efforts have been exerted to
raise and equalise the condition of tiie lower and the
middling classes, without creating any dangerous
alarm in the minds of the high and powerful nobles ;
and its more or less successfiil advance in this reduc-
tion of feudal privilege occasions at present much
variety of tenure. The German provinces, which are
* The leader is requested to keep these tenns in mind, as they
are essential to the understanding of this and the fellowkQg chaptere.
The iandessteile is the council of dtil government of the
province, and the kreisampt that of the district Both are ap-
pointed by the crown, and act solely under its orders. Theix con-
.stitution and functions wiU be hereafter explained.
40 AUSTRIA. [CH*
our present subject, may in this respect be divided
into two principal classes, — those to the north of the
Danube, in which feudality is still essentially prevar*
lent ; and those to the south of that river, in which it
has been mainly abated. The greatest feudal severity
out of Hungary is in Gallieia, which, having become
an Austrian possession only on the partition of P<dand,
still retains much of its Polish character. Nearest to
that of Gallieia is the condition in this respect of
Bohemia and Moravia ; while the provinces of Upper
and Lower Austria, of Styria, and others to the south,
exhibit a much greater advance in social freedom.
For the proper understanding of the subject, it
will be requisite to enter into some details as to those
characteristics which apply to tenures generally, and
as to those changes of condition which result from the
invasions of the crown on feudal rights.
The whole of the land, generally speaking, is
divided (as was the case likewise in all parts of
Europe during the middle ages) into herrschafls or
lordships, corresponding with our manors. Some
portion thereof constitutes the private estate of the
lord, and is termed in German and Hungarian law his
allodiim^*. The residue is divided into holdings,
* This word has not, of course, the same signification here as it
has with ns ; although it has indeed heen held that the lands of
the lords in Lower and Upper Austria and Styria are actually
allodial in (mr sense; that is, that the ultimate right to them is
not in the crown. In Silesia, Bohemia, and Moravia, the
tenures are decidedly feudal, the king heing the ultimas kares ;
III.] RURAL POPULATION. 41
termed, in German, iehns, and held by a class of per*
sons popularly designated (in common with all the
inhabitants who are neither citizens nor nobles) under
the general name of peasants, but who, as fixed in
their possessions, rights, aod duties, by the Urbaiium,
answer more correctly to the character of our earlier
copyhdlders, and are termed, in the law/ coloni*.
These lehns are, according to their measurements,
either a full holding (sessio cohnicalu), a three-quar-
ter holding, half holding, or quarter holding ; and in
proportion thereto, are the services due to the lord.
In Hungary the whole direct contribution towards
the state falls on these coloni or cultivators ; but such
is not the case in the other dominions of the crown.
In Bohemia, (and also in Hungary,) and the other
northern provinces, the holder of a full holding is
generally bound to yield to his lord, for the culture of
his private allodium, 104 days of one man's labour
and the same may be said of Hungary, with this qualification,
that the sovereign is there constitutionally bound to re-grant to
some other noble the land which liases for want of an heir.
The matter is of little practical consequence, as the crown, or
certain appointed authorities, would in every case take posses-
sion, either in virtue of succession, prerogative, or police, of any
land which was without a proprietor.
* I use the Latin in preference to the German terms on this
point, as being better calculated to convey correct ideas. The
German word bauer, commonly translated peasant, was only ap-
propriate while the peasants or cultivators were, as such, a distinct
class deprived of political right.
42 AUSTRU. [CH.
{or hand^obot) within the year; one day's work
with cart and hones (xug-robot) being ecmputed to
be equivalent to two days' work of a man akme: and
hoklers of smaller diviflians are dubbed together, so
fiat one full robot is taken by anrangement fixmi
among four persons, who have a quarter hoUing
eadu There are other fixed dues and duties of a less
onerous kind. As a general principle, the suijeet *
yields to the lord one-tenth part of the gross pro-
duce of the land which he cultivates himself, as also
certain tributes of live stock. He is bound for certain
days to the cutting of wood for the lord, the killing
of noxious anunals, &c. Sec. Yielding these dues and
services, the cultivator holds his own land as abso-
lutely as the lord does his allodium. Certam restric-
tions in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Gallicia,
limit his faculty of accumulating holdings indefinite^
by purchase ; but in all parts he may freely sell his
lands, and remove to others at pleasure, subject to the
general police regulations of the empire, and to the
charge of finding a successor, so that the land shall
not be vacant nor the services unperformed ; and he
may bequeath and devise his lehn, and other property,
meal and personal, by will. One deviation, indeed, is
made in this last respect from the general law, in
compliance with that maxim of state policy, which,
while it aims on the one hand at breaking through
feudal entails, seeks, on the other, to prevent too great
* The tenn subject (subditusy unterthaner) is applied to feudal
inferiors generally all over Grermany.
III.] RURAL POPULATION. 43
a subdivisicm of inferior occupancies. No actual hold*
Hig, be it a full half or quarter lehn, may be divided,
diher by sale, bequest, or inheritance : and hence, as the
law of inheritances and pflichttheils is the same for the
eokHius as for his lord, the lehn itself is sold on the de*
oease of a cc^onus leaving children, and the proceeds
<mly divided according to the law or the will ; or, which
isa more usual case, the eldest son takes the land, and
subjects himsdf to adequate pecuniary liabilities to-
wards his co*heirs.
Next below the eoUmus in the scale of peasantry is
the inquilirmsy who holds a house only, with, perhaps^
a few square poles of ground attached to it ; and bdow
him is the ^ub-inquiUnus, or mere lodger, answering
in pomtion to our common labourer or fanning ser-
vant ; each of whom, if residing on manorial ground,
yields some nunute portion of labour and dues to the
lord. The law fixes a sum at which all robota are
eommutable for money ; but it does not enforce mich
eommutations, leaving them to be made only when
both lord and subject agree to adopt them.
Regulations, somewhat varying with the local cir*
cumstances of the different provinces, are made in the
urbarium to protect the copyholder from being called
on for robot on more than a certain number of days
in any one week or month ; to limit the number of
hours of work ; and generally to shield him against
caprice or oppression. One of these is the regulation
enacted for Bohemia and Moravia, and, if I mistake
not, for Gallicia also, though not for Hungary, that
44 AUSTRIA. [CH,
the days are absolutely fixed. One man's turn b on
Monday, that of another on Tuesday, and of a third
on Wednesday ; imd even on these days he may find
l^al cause of absence in time of hanrest, or other
period of urgent home labour, such excuse bdng
always liable to judidal investigation. £y^ improve-
ment made by the subject is his own property. As
the produce of lus land increases in quantity, so does
of course the value of the tenth which he yields to his
lord; but the robots and other services are fixed. By
mutual consent all of these may be redeemed either in
perpetuity or for shorter periods, in which cases the
maximum of commutation for robots is determined by
law ; and in order to protect the cultivator fix>m unjust
or fraudulent contracts, in regard to services and tenths,
a comparatively recent ordinance has enacted that no
agreement in perpetuity between lord and subject may
be made, without the sanction of the Imperial Krei*
sampt. The policy of the government greatly &vours
these compositions; and such are the difficulties as
regards the enforcement of robots, thrown in the way
of the lords, that the latter are often happy to obtain
for them, in money, any commutation however low.
A large Bohemian proprietor (whose recent death has
deprived me of one of the most valued friends I had
on earth, and who, with his brothers, counted on their
estates dgbteen thousand subjects) has frequently ob-
served to me that he found it usually more advan-
tageous to accept even a very small part of the legal
commutation money, and to hire labour from others.
III.] RURAL POPULATION. 45
than to take it in kind from those who were bound to
yield it. " I want work done," said he, " on a part of
my properties upon aThursday, but the robotters nearest
at hand object that this is not their day of service.
The Thursday workers live perhaps at a distance, far
and wide apart : they are allowed by law so much
time to come, and so much to return : they arrive half
tired, and bring broken carts and jaded horses ; and
the result of the whole is, that hardly any useful work
is performed. We always take money- payments
where we can obtain them, and would willingly com-
mute the whole of our robots in perpetuity ; but to
proposals of this nature the robotters will hardly ever
consent. They compound with us for the work of
weeks, or of months, possibly even of a year (usually,
however, on terms lower than the law defines), but
rarely for longer periods. One reason of their re-
fusal may be the want of cash ; but another more
availing one is, their knowledge of the inclination of
the government in their favour, and their persuasion
of what must, in fact, ere long be the case, that
robots will either be reduced to a formal nullity, or
altogether cease.'*
Still in Bohemia and MoraVia (and far more in
Hungary) much real feudal power remains to the
lord, and with it also much expensive charge upon
his finances. He must have his court of justice, and
his registry, in which all the lands of the herrschaft
are recorded, with their extent, valuation, mortgages,
and incumbrances ; and which registry is open to
46 AUSTRIA. [CH.
general inspection. In matters of taxation he ap-
points, at his owii expense, the collector for the direct
revenues of the crown, who, however, must be ap-
proved of by the emperor ; and who collects both the
dominicai steuer, or lord's land-tax, and the rusHcal
steueTy or subject's land-tax, together with all other
direct taxes, and remits the whole to the imperial ex-
chequer; he, the lord, paying the salaries and ex-
penses of the collection, but not being responsible for
defaults or arrears. In judicial matters he appoints
his fiscal and other officers, who hold his eourtp, and
have summary police jurisdiction as far as three days'
imprisonment, or fifteen stripes, and who also form a
tribunal of first instance for the civil suits of the
feudal inferiors. In every case where the " subject"
is a party, the first procedure is in the lord's court,
from whence, however, it is removed by appeal to the
imperial tribunals ; and among the innovations of later
years in favour of the people, one of high importance
is the enactment, that, in all litigations between the
lord and his subjects, the majority of which consist
of disputes as to the amount of dues and services, and
as to agreements and compositions in regard to them,
the deeiision, whether in the lord's court or out of it,
is made not by his own functionaries, but by those of
the crown. Hence it arises, that points of this
description are frequently settled by private agree-
ment, much to the prejudice of the legal rights of the
'lord ; as otherwise they go forth to the courts of the
districi;, where the crown-fiscal or his deputy is bound
III.] RURAL POPULATION. 47
in all suits to act, on behalf of the '' subject," against
hi& feudal superior.
The mibjecUy whether copyholders, householders, or
mere day-labourers, in the great feudal provinces, live
little on the country lands. They are congregated
into villages, the internal regulation of which is con-
ducted on a principle of self-government, by officers
of police, collection, and administration, elected from
among the inhabitants, under the sanction of the lord
or of the crown. If a village contain so many as 120
houses, it is competent to receive a charter from the
crown, conceding the right to hold markets, with cer-
tain municipal privileges and the establishment of
administrative functionaries, which reduce its depend-
ence on the lord ; and hence, as no houses can be
built but by hk permission, he often prevents this
partial enfranchisement, by restricting the maximum
number of houses to 119. Whatever be the size of
the herrschaft, the establishment can little vary. The
lord must have his justiciar or fiscal, his collector,
registrar, and a large train of subordinate functionaries,
who form his administration and live upon his allow-
ances ; and hence, large properties are comparatively
more profitable than small ones, although still, from
their territorial, as well as personal expenditure, the
great proprietors are generally much in debt. When
the lords intimate that they have not the means to
support t&e regular expenses of the herrsche^t — the
hdding of separate courts and registries, and the pay-
ment of fiscals, collectors, and surveyors,— the charge of
48 AUSTRIA. [CH.
jadicial and other admiiiistration is assumed by the
crown officers of the district ; and thus the lord, re-
lieved from feudal burdens, loses also Hs feudal domi-
nation.
Connected with feudal practice in Moravia, Bohe-
mia, &c., may be mentioned the method of military
recruitment. The crown sends to the chief town of a
district the precept for a certain number of men. The
imperial authorities there apportion this number
among the different herrschafts or manors, according
to the extent of their respective populations. The
administration of the herrschaft does the same among
its towns and villages ; where, if voluntary enlistment
does not suffice, the village authorities, with the lord's
officers, decide on the parties who shall go forth. In
well-regulated lordships, married men are never taken,
or elder, or only sons ; while individuals of less re-
gular conduct are preferentially destined to the ser-
vice ; and the fear <^ being sent to the army acts thus
as an instrument of police, in enforcing on the youths
morality and order.
. It has been mentioned that the villages are, under
the supervision of the lord, governed internally by
officers of their own selection ; and that those of ade-
quate sixe are competent to become market-towns,
on obtaining from the crown a royal charter, which
its policy rarely refuses. The charter provides an
improved and extended system of self-government; the
creation of a mayor and town councils, the adminis-
tration of internal police, and the right of raising
III.] RURAL POPULATION. 49
money hy rate on the inhabitants, or by loan under
the common seal. It in no respect iaterferc;^, how-
ever, with the antecedent rights of the lord, to the
robots dues and services of the inhabitants, the whole
of which remaiii unchanged, until redeemed by mutual
and voluntary bargain concluded under the sanction
of the imperial kreisampt. Hence it is not unfre-
quent for the newly-constituted market^towns to
raise money by loan under their common seal, for
the purposes of emancipation; and hence, too, the
extent of the emancipation varies considerably in the
different towns. In some, robots and other personal
services are redeemed, while tenths of produce ai-e
still yielded, or made matter of pecuniary composi*
tion : in others, the redemption is complete, and the
supremacy of the lord consists only in the jurisdic-
tion of his court, his chanceries, and registries, and the
right of a veto on the election of municipal officers ;
and in others, again, even the jurisdiction has been
abandoned on the score of expense, and the whole
supremacy has merged in the crown. Sp long as
towns remain under the jurisdiction of ^he lord* they
are, equally with the villages, subject (o the usual
rights of feudality. No one can brew or distil with-
out the lord's licence; and from such licences is
sometimes derived a considerable portion of his reve-
nue. No one can exercise the calling of butcher, or
retailer of wines and spirits, but by his appointment ;
and over all the traders and inhabitants of his towns
and villages he possesses a certain degree of control,
VOL. II. E
(rO iirSTUA. [CH.
an the p fOfwictor^ in legal must, of iheml on wkidi
thtj lire* In some cases, as re g ai d s wines and
prormmis, lie has a fimited ri^it of ^e-emptioo ;
and, in othen, of exHosYe or pririkged scaler Ifis
courts adnnnkter justice to soilon, mai^ofwliaiD
rentnre not to appeal Crom Acir decrees. His pidiee
proridef soldien for the army, and mfficts sumnary
punishment on small offenders.
Socli is, in outline, the system (rf* feodality in Bohe-
mia and the northern provinces. It is evident that,
notiridistanding the pdicy of the crown and the vigi-
lance of its oflKcers, much arbifanary power remains
with the lords, and (what is worse in practieal eflfect)
with their agents. The former are less likely to
abuse it than the latter. The improved bwnanity,
and the increasing operation of a mild religion on the
minds of the Bohemian nobles ; their residence tor a
considerable part of the year in Vienna or in Prague ;
the feelings of luxury, indeed, but not of harshness,
which result from courtly intercourse ; and, finally,
that public opinion which has penetrated, and does to
a certain extent prevail in these countries as else-
where, do far more than could be effected by any posi-
tive enactment, towards rendering them kind and
beneficent landlords. These observations apply
generally to the great proprietors themselves in all
the feudal provinces; but the case must be often
different with their agents. These latter may be
closely watched by the imperial functionaries, ever
seeking, in the detection of abuse, ground for further
III.] RURAL POPULATION. 51
innovation ; but still it must be evident^ that where
feudal agents are inclined to be capricious or oppres-^
sive, the barriers are yet insufficient which oppose
their will. Each short period of years, however,
brings with it some improvement. In all the other
sovereignties of Germany, as well as in Austria, the
feudal institutions more or less prevail. In all of
them a line is drawn between the noble and the non-
noble ; and, in several, that line forms a much wider
real distinction than exists in the German provinces
of Austria. In countries where these distinctions
have been most abated, the alteration has been occa-
sioned or accompanied by internal convulsion or
foreign subjection, from both of which scourges
Austria has been preserved by the steady attachment
of her subjects. She pursues her course of reform
quietly and peaceably ; progressively adopting those
ameliorations in the whole of her internal adminis*
tration, whereby, if she be not obstructed by foreign
causes, her resources and energies will, at no distant
period, receive a development commensurate with
their real solidity and extent.
If we turn now to the provinces south of the Da^
nube, we find the severity of the feudal system nearly
if not wholly extinct. In Styria, Upper and Lower
Austria, Tyrol, Carniola, Garinthia, &c., robot is
almost unknown.* The tributes and services have
been redeemed ; or, in lieu thereof, money-payments
* There may be some very few relics of the old system in Upper
Austria, but", if so, they are rare exceptions.
e2
52 AUSTRIA. [CH.
are made, or a fine of 5 or sometimes 10 per cent, is
levied on the transfer of property by sale, devise, or
succession. The lord, indeed, as with us, retains his
manorial rights of fishing and hunting : he has also
his courts, as in the north, to which all. the subjects
of the manor are, in the first instance, formally amen-
able; but in which neither himself nor his officers
have any real power, for no case in which he is
directly or indirectly concerned can be decided but by
functionaries of the crown. He appoints the col-
lectors of the revenue, subject to the approval of the
sovereign. He has, in fine, much of the forms, but
very little of the substance,"^ of feudal superiority. One
important result of this relaxation is seen in the dif-
ferent character of rural occupancy. In Bohemia,
Moravia, and Gallicia, few lands are let on lease.
The private estates of the lords are principally in
culture, or in sheep-farms, under the management of
their immediate agents ; while the rest of the soil
is in the hands of the coloni, each cultivating his
separate holding as best he can. In the southern
provinces, on the contrary, a considerable portion of
the land is in the hands of farmers or tenants, who
hold on lease for six, eight, or twelve years, some-
times under the lord, and sometimes under his '' sub-
jects.^' The general rules of law in regard to these
lessees or tenants are extremely favourable to the
actual cultivator. In arrear for rent or for compo-
sition of manorial dues, tlie landlord possesses no
power of summary distress : he must apply to a.
III.J RURAL POPULATION. 53
tribunal in which the whole authority vestg in funo
tionaries of the crown, and wherein the tenant is
also heard. The case proceeds as for common debt;
and only after sentence is given against the tenant
can the landlord, on default of payment, take, out
execution against person or property : the last step
of which, as to the latter, is sale by public auction.
The legal proceedings, moreover, are slow ; and if the
tenant or manorial debtor fears an adverse sentence,
he often sells what he has, and moves away before they
are closed. In the case of sub-letting and middle-
men, the Umd^ its produce, and the implements of the
actual cultivator, are liable to each of those who hold
4
above the actual occupant, but the person only to the
immediate superior ; and the liability, either as to goods
or person, is in no case by mesne process, but only
after suit and judgment obtained. Expenses for
improvements are usually matter of agreement ; but,
.in the absence of such, the tenant may demand in-
demnification for all he has incurred. He is liable,
on the other hand, to payment of all public taxes and
imposts, without claim for reimbursement, except
where stipulation in the lease may exist to the con-
trary. As to the lord's individual judicial power, it
is little, if at all, more than a mere formality. Two
subjects in contest must indeed commence proceed-
ings in his court — and in it, too, the lord primarily
sues the subject — but the real proceedings are had
before the judges of the crown, either by removal of
the case, or by their presence in the local court.
54 AUSTRIA» [CH.
Whenever the subject is plaintiff against the lord, be
applies to the imperial procurator of the province,
who carries on the suit for him in the crown tribu-
nals at very small expense ; and, indeed, so favour-
able is the general policy of the law towards the
subject, that the late Emperor Francis, in speaking
of his private domains, used frequently to utter a
half-serious complaint, of his inability to obtain from
the peasants on his private domains the justice to
which he was by common law entitied.
Having thus far viewed the population in what
may be termed thdr primary condition, of proprietors
and cultivators of the soil, we have next to notice the
nature of those social institutions, under which they
live as inhabitants of villages, towns, and cities. On
the old feudal principle which prevailed in most
parts of the German States of the empire until a late
period, and which is still in full vigour in Hungary,
the internal government of the towns and villages,
situated on manorial lands, was conducted by officers
elected in some shape from the body of the inhabit-
ants, but subject to the approval or rejection of the
manorial fiscal, and consequently, in point of fact,
chosen in accordance with his inclination. By a
system of gradual interference, the crown has suc-
ceeded, throughout its German provinces, in acquir-
ing, at the expense of the lords, much of the control
over those local authorities ; and, by assuming the
III.] T0WN3 AND CITIES. 55
right to grant charters to villages of a hundr^ and
twenty houses, it has raised those commumties greatly
in the seale of social existence, while it has secured
for itself some portion of that political influence which
was formerly enjoyed by the feudal superiors. In
each village or chief place of a rural district, a ma-
gistrate, a collector, suid other officers of internal
management, are still chosen, by a species of elec-
tion, by and from the body of the inhabitants ; but
all these functionaries now must be approved QU the
part of the crown by the imperial kreisampt. When
to such a community a charter is granted, the extent
of its corporation, or rather the number of its muni-
cipal functionaiies, depends on that of its population ;
and with this view municipal towns are divided into
several classes, and pass from a lower to a higher
class, as the number and circumstances of their in-
habitants improve. Their general system of organi-
zation, however, is the same,—- corresponding consi-
derably with that of the borough-towns of England
previous to the late alterations. There is an outer or
common council, elected for a term of three or four
years ; an inner council, or court of aldermen, chosen
for life from amongst the former ; and, by separate
election, from among the members of these councils,
are chosen a burgomaster or mayor, a syndic or
recorder, a treasurer, and other functionaries. To
these officers, aided by certain members of the corpo-
ration, who act as assessors, is committed the admi-
nistration of justice to a limited extent ; the lighting.
56 AUSTRIA. [CH.
cleaning, and general police of the town ; the esta^
blishm^it and regulation of markets ; and die impo-
sition of town-rates for corporate purposes^ While,
however, the corporate bodies have thus an appear-
ance of municipal independence, and are in fact
removed considerably from the pressure of manorial
supremacy, especial care is taken in the workuig of
the machinery, to avoid all that may lead to popular
excitement The controlling authority of the crown,
operating through the kreisampt, or the landessteUe,
is felt at every step. The power of election into a
council or an office is not in the inhabitants at large,
but in the members of guilds or companies — to some
one of which all persons exercising trades are com-
peted, and other inhabitants are competent, to be-
long. Lists of these members of guilds, or, as we
should call them, '' liverymen," are prepared b^ore
every election, . and transmitted for confirmation to
the kreisampt. These general lists having been ap-
proved, each guild elects from- its respective body a
certain number of electors, varying according to tbe
population of the town, but never, in the aggr^ate,
less than twenty, — all of whom must receive the
approbation of the kreisampt. The names of the
candidates to. fill up vacancies in the councils or
offices are transmitted to the kreisampt, together
with certificates of certain qualifications, and espe-
cially of moraiity — ^a term which, in Austria as in
France, is understood to comprehend quiet, orderly
demeanour, and habitual submission to lawful autho-
111.] TOWNS AND CITIES. 57
rity. The candidates having been approved by the
kreisampt, who have tiie power of exclusion without
declaring their reasons, the electors assemble, and,
in presence of die magistrates, give their votes by
secret balled : after which the successful candidate is
installed by the kreisampt or landesstelle into office*
In some cases the feudal lord has a veto, as well as
the imperial authorities, on the election of a mayor
or recorder ; but he is bound to give bis reasons for
exercising it, which the landesstelle has power to
overrule; and although these and some other mu-
nicipal officers are elected only for a term of three
or four years, their functions are renewed at plea-
sure by the landesstelle without any further election
— an arrangement by which the principal offices are
held really for life, provided such be the pleasure
of the crown. Neither is it to the elections only
that this all-directing power of the crown is extendi.
Every regulation of internal government must re-
ceive the sanction of the kreisampt. To it, or to its
superior board, the landesstelle, must be annually
submitted a financial statement of receipts, expen-
diture, and estimates; and without its authority no
disburs^nents can be made, and no rates or impo-
sitions levied on the inhabitants. A view of this
machinery suffices to show how much the internal
government of these municipal bodies is under the
control of the crown, and this might alone account
for its inclination to grant charters in all cases where
it can acquire the power of doing so.
58 AUSTRIA [CH.
Iq an enumeration which I have before mei aii(l
which I believe to be accurate, the number of villages
(dorfer) in the empire is stated to be 72,135^ and
that of the market towns (markte) 2545; above
which, in the scale of municipal rank, are placed 782
citieg (stadte) . When a market-town has rendered
itself, by commutations or agreements, free of all dues
whatsoever towards a feudal superior, it may be raised
at the pleasure of the crown to the rank of a city, by
an additional charter which exalts its station, and
grants it some higher political privileges, (probably
including that of sending members to the provincial
states,) but which makes little alteration in its ge-
neral system of government. The number of the
councillors is usually greater than in the boroughs,
and divided into more numerous sections for the
management of their more extended and multifarious
functions ; but the elections are under the same con-
trol of the imperial authorities, and all the acts of the
corporation, administrative and financial, must, as has
been described in regard to the boroughs, receive the
sanction of the landesstelle of the province. The
number of councillors at Vienna is seventy ; at Gratz,
thirty ; at Pesth in Hungary, (where the cities have
the same constitution as those in the German states,)
a hundred and twenty-four. The larger cities are
divided into several districts, each administered by
separate functionaries, all under one burgomaster or
mayor. The crown, legislating by ordinance, alters
at pleasure th^ details of government in cities and
lU.] PUBLIC RELIEF. 59
towns, and, where the population is large, usually
talipes on itself all the higher duties of police, and the
preservation of public order.
As applying equally to both classes of the popula-
tion, the inhabitants of the towns and those of the
rural districts^ must now be explained the system of
public relief afforded to the sick and the distressed.
No part of Europe probably abounds so much in
charitable endowments as the wealthier provinces of
the Austrian empire; and these, so long as feudal
domination remained entire, were perhaps sufficient
for all the exigencies of pressing misery: — for the
genius of feudality combined protection with autho-
rity ; and either paternal principle, ancient custom,
or a sense of moral duty, impelled the manorial lord
so far to provide for the needy and the infirm, as to
preserve them at all events from actual destitution.
But no social change, however salutary, can ever be
effected without some attendant suffering. As the
power of the lords became restricted, so did their
protecting benevolence pass away. The pauperism
thus created was further and extensively increased
by the reduction of the monasteries under Joseph II.,
between the years 1782 and 1786; and hence the
government of Austria, like that of England at an
earlier period under somewhat similar circumstances,
found itself compelled to organize what may be
termed a system of poor-laws, whereof the sketch was
60 AUSTRIA. [CH.
traced by Joseph, and the full development com-
pleted by the late emperor Francis. The first aun
of Joseph was to restore entire efficiency to all ex-
Uting institutions of benevolence ; for which pur-
pose, with that arbitrary decision which characterised
all his reforms, he assumed to the crown the super-
vision and direction of every private and collegiate
endowment. He next issued commissions to examine
and report upon their respective funds and circum-
stances; and with this information before him, he
suppressed those establishments which he considered
superfluous or ineffective, pouring their revenues into
a general mass, which, under the designation of the
poor-fundf (armenfond^ he created or improved in
each of the provinces. The institutions which he
retained, hospitals, almshouses, charitable societies,
or whatsoever else they might be, he did not divert
from the objects of their foundation ; neither did he
allow the resources of the poor-fiind itself to be ap-
plied to other purposes than those of social benefi-
cence; but the administration of the fund, and the di-
rection of the establishments, he subjected wholly to
the control of the imperial authorities.
It was soon perceived, however, that neither these
endowments, multifarious and extensive as they were,
nor the resources of the poor-fund, nor the ordinary
contributions of private benevolence^ would suffice to
meet the exigencies created by an altered condition of
society ; and hence has been formed a plan of sys-
tematic, though not compulsory relief, the aim of
III.] RELIEF FOR THE POOR AND SICK. 61
which is to afford efficient aid to helpless poverty,
without encouraging the baneful idea that it can ever
be demanded as a matter of legal right.
In every rural community or parish, and in every
district of the larger towns, (which for that purpose
are divided into sections according to the number of
the population,) is established an Armen Institute or
institution for the poor, which is under the immediate
direction of the minister of the parish, and of an
officer termed the armen-vatery the father of the poor.
Its funds are partly derived from the interest of any
special endowments which private benevolence may be-
stow, from donations received through the poor-box
affixed at the door of every place of worship, from
fines imposed for offences under the police and crimi-
nal jurisdictions, and from certain small municipal
imposts in cities and towns on articles of public sale ;
but its most stable and general source of income is a
collection made monthly from house to house, which,
from the general tendency of the Austrian character
to acquiesce in the recommendations of their clerical
or civil superiors, has mainly the effect, without the
odium, of a compulsory assessment. Bread, provisions,
and clothing, are received from those, to whom pecu-
niary contribution is less convenient. It bears some
resemblance to the method of collection formerly prac-
tised by the Franciscan and Capucin friars which the
government has now wholly prohibited, but with thefie
important improvements, that the money and means
collected are received and distributed solely by the
62 AUSTRIA. [CH.
numster of the parish and the armen voter j with the aid
of the Protestant pastors ia admiiustering to the ne-
cessities of their own communities. Rdief is afforded
to the stationary poor, and also to casual and migra-
tory applicants, provided with proper passports and
papers, according to a graduated scale of fiill, half, dsA
quarter allowanced, sometimes in money, sometimes in
provisions ; and annual statements are furnished, exhi-
biting every detail of receipt and expenditure, vdiich,
after bdng counter^gned by an official accountant,
find thdr way, through the kreisampt and the lan«
desstelle, to the ultimate source of every Austrian
administration, the Imperial Chancery at Vienna.
This is what may be termed the '' districtual out-door
relief" — the proper objects of which are the aged, the
infirm, and the victims of casual misfortune ; but for
the suppression of vagrancy and the punishment of
idleness, depots of mendicity are formed in most or all
of the cities and larger towns, combining the double
purposes of police and charity, to which vagrants are
transferred, and where they are compelled to labour.
Alms-houses and infirmaries are very numerous ; some
supported by voluntary contributions and special
endowments, others by the public funds of the pro-
vince ; and for the relief of persons of somewhat supe-
rior class, numerous societies are formed by individuals,
who voluntarily contribute their means and their time
in visiting and relieving private cases of distress, which
shrink from the acceptance of public charity.
In harmony with the provisions for the succour of
III.] RELIEF FOR THE POOR AND SICK. 63
poverty, are those established for the relief of disease.
Each province has a prato-mediker, or physician-
genera}, app<niited by the crown, who is the guardian
of the public health, the chief of the medical and
chirurgical fiMnilties at the univermties and schools, and
tl^ director of all the hospitals and sanatory esta-
blishments, whe^r of public or private endowment,
within the region of his superintendence. Dependent
on him, each kreis or circuit has a medico-chirurgical
establishment ; and subordinate again to it, each parish
or conveniently-sized district, whether of town or
country, has one or more functionaries in each of
the different branches of the profession, paid from
public funds, .whose duty it is to afford gratuitous
assistance to tlie needy, and to report to their official
superiors, on all points connected with the general
health of their locality. Of the hospitals and infirma*
ries many are of old endowment ; but, as occasion may
require, arising from the increase of population, new
ones are erected at the expense of the landesstelle.
The internal arrangements and management of aU
these institutions are excellent; and, while, in the
aggregate, they exceed in number those of any other
country, except perhaps our own, their uniformity of
administration and universal subjection to the control
of the superior medical officer of the province, pre-
serves them from most of those abuses and perversions
which, in the minor institutions of English bene-
ficence, are so frequently said to prevail.
Of the various descriptions of human suffering for
64 AUSTRIA. [CH.
which relief is thus afforded, it would be superfluoas
and tedious to offer an enumeratioo. One class only it
is requisite to mention, as it may be doubted gieatiiy
whether they be not conducive to that social disofder»
which, in every other respect, it appears to be the
successful aim of the Austrian government to remedy
and restrain. These' are institutions of which one
or more are established in each province, combining
the purposes of a lying-in hospital and an asylum for
'' foundlings/' They owe their origin to the desire
of Joseph II. to diminish the crime of infanticide,
which, during his reign, was fearfully prevalent, and
this immediate object of their creation they certainly
appear to have successfully attained ; but when the
tables are considered, which in a future chapter on
Austrian morality will be presented to the reader,
some apprehension may be justly entertained, thai
the anxiety to extirpate one social evil may have ma-
terially contributed to encourage another. With this
exception, if such it be, the objects as well as the
management of the Austrian establishments of bene-?
ficence, whether eleemosynary or sanatory, evince a
high degree of practical wisdom. They are all equally
open to Christian subjects of every denomination :
the Protestant, the Romanist, and the Greeks have
equally the benefit of the parochial armen-fond, and
are all equally admitted to the hospitals and infiim-
aries. The wisdom of Austria has also closely con-«
nected beneficence with religion. Except in cases
of accidents and casualties, and in those falling >vUhin
III.] RELIEF FOR THE POOR AND SICK. 65
tbe Sphere of private agsistance, the testimonial of
the parochial incumbent, or of the protestant pastor,
is generally required from all who solicit any species
of refief, or admission even into any hospital ; and in
most cases of pecuniary succour, these sacred func-
lacmaiee^ in conjunction with the armen-vater, are
Its imrmediate dispensers. Malversation and abuse
are checked (or at least sought to be checked) by
that system of universal control, which in the elee-
mos3mary, as well as in every other branch of its ad-
ministration, the central government retains firmly
to itself. The parish minister and the armen-vater
transmit quarterly accounts of their receipts and dis-
bursements, accompanied by every detail of inform-
ation, to the archdeacon of the district, by whom
reports of the whole of his archdeaconry are made
to the Landesstelle of the province, and to the con-
sistory of the diocese. Similar reports are rendered
from every hospital, and by the medical supervisors
of every parish, through their respective superiors,
to the Landesstelle and to the Proto-Mediker, and
from the whole of these materials are digested annual
statements for the Board of Charities at Vienna. The
Landesstelle, who are charged with the administration
of aU the charitable funds, transmit to the imperial
chancery an annual budget of the incmne and expen-
diture, together with estimates for the future year ;
the armen-fond being applicable generally to all
objects of beneficence, — ^to the erection and support
of hospitals and infirmaries, — and^ when occasion may
VOL. II. F
66 AUSTRIA. [CH.
SO require, to the enlargement of the funds of the amien^
institut, in the diflFerent districts and parishes. If, in
any one year, its resources, together with those of the
other charitable revenues, are more than adequate to
meet the charge on them within the province, the sur-
plus is invested in securities until it shall be demanded
for future necessities. If, on the other hand, they be
insufl&cient for those objects which the Landesstelle
recommend and the supreme Board of Charities ap-
prove, a grant is made from the general revenue ; for
the Crown never forgets that its strength depends on its
paternal character, and endeavours to provide that, in
some mode or other, misery, unaccompanied by crime,
shall not be unrelieved.
On the actual condition of a population so large
and so diversified as that which it has now been at-
tempted to sketch a description, it is less easy to
arrive at accurate knewledge, than on the machinery
of the institutions by which they are governed ; but
all who have turned their attention to the subject
will have admired the order and regularity, the con-
tentedness of spirit, the absence of mendicity or
visible destitution, the apparent suflSciency of worldly
means, and the abundance of physical enjoyment,
which seem generally to prevail iii the German pro-
vinces of the empire. As commerce and manufac-
tures advance, the system of guilds or companies in
the boroughs and cities will be probably found to be
injurious ; but in the present condition of the country
III.I CONDITION OP THE PEOPLE. 67
its effect on industry is rather protective than other-
wise^ whik, in a pdlitical point of view, it forms an
important element of public order. Of the towns
and villages^ those situated on the extenfidve manors
and feudsll domains, which in most of the provinces
constitute. the private estate of the sovereign, are
usually the best administered; and, supposing an
equality of natural advantages, decidedly the most
thrivilig aUd happy. In them th6 feudal superiority
merges in the general authority of the Landesstelle or
the Krdsubipt, and that authority, however great, is,
under the vigilant inspection of the cent^ govern-
ment at Vienna, usually exerted for the well-being
and improvement of the inhabitants. Their wants and
interests are more carefully provided for ; — their lawful
dues more leniently collected ; — ^they have, in a word,
all the advantages of tenants living on the estate of
a very wealthy and powerful and paternal landlord.
On the feudal manors of private individualsi the state
of the inhabitants must be liable to greater uncer-
tainties. The necessities of the lords may require ai
ri^d exaction of services and tributes; the local
agents may be negligent or oppressive ; and the fre-
quently conflicting functions of the manorial and the
imperial officers may work prejudicially to the en-
forcement of administrative regtdations. The crown,
making its advances steadily but cautiously, ever
atvoids, if possible, hostile coQision. It is wary in
exerting its rights of interference in the villages and
smaller chartered towns, in actual opposition to the
f2
68 AUSTRIA. [CH*
manorial agents ; and trusts to the effeet of one small
inroad following another, until victory is gradually,.-
but effectively, ensured. As its success becomes con-
firmed, an uniformity of system is established. In.
the smaller communities and the open country, the
authority of the imperial functionaries is substituted,
for that of the manorial agents ; and in the cities and
firee boroughs, however at variance the interference,
of royal absolutism may be with the principles of
chartered rights, it secures the inhabitants, at all
events, from the feverish dissensions of a trading de^.
mocracy, while it opposes a salutary check on that
very objectionable form of government — ^the muni-
cipal oligarchy of a country town.
To the eye of the traveller, a perceptible difference
is presented, as he quits the northern for the southern
provinces; which, although arising from various
causes, is not inconsiderably connected with the com-
parative prevalence or reduction of feudality. It
occurred to ourselves, to pass from Bohemia into
Upper Austria, by the road from Prague to lAnz ;
when, descending the granitic range of mountains
into the vale of the Danube, we found ourselves in a
new and beautiful world. In Bohemia the lands
had been usually in large open unenclosed masses*
either of forest, pasture, or cultivated soil, with con-
siderable villages, but few detached buildings. Here,,
on the contrary, the eye was gladdened with a view
which would yield to none in the most lovely parts
of England, — small green enclosures, — ^hedgerows
III.] CONDITION OF THB PEOPLE. 69
adorned with lofty trees, — ^neat well-built cottages
among the fields, with their little gardens and trel*
Uses of roses. Traversing for a few miles this sweet
vale, amid a well-clad, healthy, happy-looking po-
pulation, we reached Linz, the elegant capital of
Upper Austria. The noble Danube flows beside it,
between lofty banl(s, adorned with gardens and plan-
tations, village-spires, and handsome private resi-^
dences ; while the high white houses within, with
their green verandas, the squares and fountains and
architectural decorations, and withal, when we were
there, the peculiar lightness and transparency of the
atmosphere, gave it far more the character of an
Italian than a German city«
Yet, in the less favoured provinces, also, it is but
just to say that the population is generally thriving,
where natural causes do not interfere to prevent it
In Gallicia there is the most of poverty ; but there
the feudal institutions, which formed the very essence
of the Polish system, remain the most unchanged ;
and the proprietors have mostly incurred enormous
sacrifices in support of their former countrymen in
the struggles against Russia. Few well-constituted
minds will refuse to sympathise with the generous
feeling from which those sacrifices have originated;
but still their effect has been most unhappy : for im-
poverished landlords, especially when they wield sudh
extensive power, necessarily occasion impoverished
subordinates. In many parts of Carniola likewise^
of Carinthia, and of Istria, the people are wretchedly
70 AUSTRIA. [CH:
poor ; but this arises principally from ns^tur^l causes :
for no institutions of man can procure opulence to the
peasant who exerts his efforts on the bare limestone
rock^ or who finds> in two years out of three, the
scanty produce of bis industry destroyed by the fierce
assaults of climate. In most of the provinces, northern
and southern, societies for the improvement of agri-
culture and the useful arts have been established, and
are supported by the princes, governors, and principal
proprietors, in conjunction with acting practical men ;
and an improved state of husbandry brings with it
an increase of comfort to the peasantry. Very few
countries in Europe have so much advanced in agri-
cultural and manufacturing prosperity within the last
quarter of a century as the extensive and flourishing,
though still feudal, kingdom of Bohemia. In tra-
versing it in all directions, we certainly saw poverty
in the mountainous parts ; and there top we met with
beggars (a rare occurrence in the Austrian states) : for
there, as everywhere, the inhabitants of bare rocky
districts will participate in the poverty of the soil they
cultivate. Generally speaking, howeveir, the land in
tillage appears to be well managed, and the t^nvns
and villages to be devoid of misery. Constructed
frequently, and indeed, as to the villages, almost inva-
riably, of wpod, roof and sides — some few only with
walls of stone or brick, either with wooden shingle
roofs, or thatched with straw, but always low and dark,
and admitting light through small deep windows —
there may be an appearance of discomfort attached
m.'\ CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 71
to tbem, especially in compariBoii with the buildings
in the central provinces^ but which is in a great mea-
sure deceptive- The mode of their construction is
rendered necessary by the severity of the vrinter cli-
mate and thdr position on large, elevated, open plains :
but the doors, the windows, and the roofs are invaria-
bly in perfect order ; and in the range of hundreds of
miles I have looked in vain for a broken pane of glass
or a fractured timber. In many of these wooden
hamletSy too, a good deal of shrubbery decoration
adorns the gloomy-looking huts of which they are
composed. The agricultural implements are clumsy,
but the condition of the cattle and of the horses, both
for posting and for general labour, may be greatly
admired ; ai^d the dress of the peasantry is warm and
substantial^ — lusually of coarse brown woollen stuff, a
considerable portion of which is knit and worked up
by the cottagers themselves, and the' residue the pro-
duce of Bohemian and Moravian fabrics. The Eng-
lish traveller is perhaps too much in the habit of form-
ing his estimate of the well-being of foreign countries,
by the presence or absence of certain articles which
are held to constitute what is called comfort in his
own. He looks with a mixture of pity and scorn on
the coarse brown-basin-like utensil, from which the
Austrian rustic takes his nourishing and substantial
mess ; and his mind complacently reverts to the neat
white plates of the English cottage, forgetting the
scanty pittance which they may be too often doomed
to supply to^ their master. Taking the English rural
72 AUSTRIA. [CH.
population, on the large tscale, in all its variations of
locality, and with reference to the ess^itials of life,
food, raiment, and lodging, and, I wiU add, education
and moral conduct, I have great doubt how &r it is,
in either of these points, superior to that of Bohemia,
and still greater, whether it be not in all of them in-
ferior to that of Upper and Lower Austria.*
* WitJiin the last Tery few yean the spread of educatioa in Eng-
land has greatly increased ; and it mny be hoped that by its means,
as also by an improved legislation on points connected with agri-
caltmal and manufiictaring labourers, the moral and physiad con-
dition of the poorer classes may be essentially impigved* How
far this has or has not been already the case, I take not on myself
to judge* I wish it to be understood that the comparison I have
instituted is formed rather on my observation of the state of the
lower classes a few years ago, than of that which may exist at the
precise period when these pages pass through the press.
!▼.] 73
CHAPTER IV.
KKi.iGioN.**Hi8tory of the EcclesiaBtical System— Different re*
cognised Forms of Faith — Supremacy of the Crown over all
equally, including the Roman Cathohc— General Toleration —
Reforms of Joseph II. — Suppression and Regulation of Monas-
teriesy and Visit of the Pope to Vienna — Number of Clergy of
all Denominations— *Roman Catholic Establishments — ^Supre*
macy of the Civil Power*-*Jus Placet! — ^Episcopal Nominations
— Scheme of Ecclesiastical Government— Diocesan Consistories
and Functionaries — Parochial Benefices — Shrines of Pilgri-
mage — Episcopal Seminaries — Duties of the Clergy — ^Eccle-
siastical Revenues— Tithes — Monastic Orders — Regulations for
their Government — Compulsion to active Duties — Subordina-
tion to the Secular Powers — Laws and Conditions affecting
them — ^Religious Fund — ^Non-Romish Subjects — Laws for sepa-
rate Sects— System of Church Government for all — Parochial
Ministers, Seniors, Superintendents, and Consistories — Hebrew
Synagogues and Greek Bishops — ^Singular Imperial Edicts —
Concluding Remarks.
The history and management of ecclesiajstical affairs
is a very remarkable feature in the Austrian system.
It exhibits a richly endowed and generally prevailing
Roman Catholic establishment, beside congregations
of every other religious denomination, all admitted to
an equality of right and privilege* — a civil government
exercising its absolute authority upon all religionists
* The slight shades of exception will be noticed presently.
74 AUSTRIA. [CH.
alike ; supervidyag the c(»iduct and the revenues of the
clergy ; directing them in the details of thdr functions
with scrupulous exactness ; and assuming to itself the
punishment of canonical as well as of civil disobedi-*
ence— finally, a sovereign professing the creed of
Rome, yet excluding the interference of the Romish
pontiff, to an extent unknown in any other country c^
Europe ; erecting and suppressing religious communi-
ties ; controlling and directing their finances ; enforo-
ing on the clergy of eyery creed alike his imperial
pleasure, even as to the forms of worship and to the
instructions given from the pulpit ; and actually annul-
ling, in virtue of his supreme authority, the force of
sacramental ordinances, when performed by his Romish
subjects in contravention of his civil enactments.
The kings of Hungary, from the earliest times, bad
sustained their independence of the court of Rome ;
and, aided by tiie nobles, had, like those of England,
frustrated all the attempts of the clergy to introduce
the civU law. The crown retained to itself the no-
mination to all ecclesiastical benefices ; and a}so the
jus plaeeti — the right of admitting or excluding all
papal bulls and ordinances. The Hungarian crown
passed by succession to the house of Austria, in the
year 1520, a succession which was followed by two
centuries of slaughter and desolation. The Turks
made themselves masters of far more tiian half the
kingdom, and its dependant principality of Transyl-
vania became a tributaiy possession of the Porte.
What remained of Hfungary to the crown was ravaged
If.] RELIGION. 75
mA depopulated by fierce religious and oivil conflicts,
carried on betvreen the government and the established
church on the <»ie side, and on the other by the bulk
of the people, among whom the principles of the Re*
formation had been widely extended. These latter,
too, were aided by a majority of the nobles, who,
although mostly retaining the Romish faith, were op-
posed to the principles of the Austrian rule. The
doctrines of Huss, Calvin, and Luther made great
progress about the same period in Bohemia and in
Upper and Lower Austria ; but tiie emperors, ever
firm in their attachment to the creed of Rome, suc-
ceeded in suppressing them by the sword, in that por-
tion of their dominions. They were not so success-
ful against thdr Hungarian subjects. These, headed
by the Transylvanian princes, then tributary to the
Forte, several times penetrated into Austria ; and so
Areatened the capital itself, as to force from the em-
perors llie pacifications of Vienna in 1606, and of
Linz in 1645, which have ever since been part and
parcel of Hungarian law. By virtue of these, and of
the later edicts of Joseph II., four forms of religion,
but four only, may be publicly exercised in Hungary,
and persons belon^ng to either of these four are indif-
ferently admissible to every office: — they are the
Roman Catholic, the Oriental Greek, and the two
Protestant confessions of Augsburg and Geneva.*
* The Jews are tolerated in Hungary, and are, in fact, very
pumerous ; but they pay a tax for their toleration, aiid are incom-
petent to possess land or hold office.
76 AUSTRIA. [CH.
Tran^lvaiiiay bong recovered from the Turks at a
later period, varies somewhat in its reli^ous establish-*
ments. Four profesdons are there also recognised by
law; but one of these is the Unitarian, while the
Oriental Greek is not included among th^n.
In the German provinces a different train of cir-^
cumstances and reasonings has established an equal
independence from the Romish power, and a stiU more
perfect equality of general tderation* The German
emperors claiming to be the successors of the Roman
Ca^ars, to whose voluntary concession the church id
indebted for its pontifical patrimony, and by whose
authority all the earlier general councils were con<»
vened and directed^ always . asserted that civil su-^
premacy in clerical affairs, which liad been exercised
by their imperial predecessors.'*' The princes of the
house of Hapsburg, who were usually elected to bear
the sceptre of the empire, enforced in their hereditary
dominions those rights and privileges which might
have been more strictly inherent in their elected sove-
reignty. They made themselves the arbiters of Italy, —
the creators, and not unfrequently the deposers, of
popes. When, indeed, thdr policy required the re-r
pression of reforming principles, they did not scruple
to employ, among other instruments, the thunders of
the church ; but even these were launched only under
the authority of the chancery of Vienna, not of the pon-
tifical court ; — so jealous have the emperors ever been
* The last of the general councils (that of Trent) was summoned
by mandate of the Emperor.
IV.] RBLIOION« 77
of papal encroachment} and so successful in subjecting
to their owp civil supremacy the pretensions of him
whom they scarcely regard in any higher light, than as
the proto-bishop of Catholic Europe. In all the
German possessions of the crown, after the dread of
Protestant supremacy or rivalry had passed away,
general toleration was gradually introduced, and finally
established by Joseph II. ; so that, at this moment,
every form of religion may in them be equally pro-
fessed and exercised.* At Vienna are, at present, con-
fflstorial congregations of liutherans and Calvinists,
Jewish synagogues, and churches of the Oriental
Greeks ; but persons of every shade of religious creed
are admissible to all stations of the army, law, and the
civil government indiflTerently. Neither is this, as may
be the case in some countries, a mere legal and not a
practical right. The crown appears to be guided in
its nominations to rank and office wholly by other
considerations than those of religious belief; and in
the imperial family itself, among the remarkable in-
stances which have occurred of the absence of religi-
ous intolerance, may be cited the circumstance of two
brothers of the late emperor Francis, the present
archdukes Charles and Joseph, having both formed
* A partial exception exists in Dalmatia, a former appendage of
Hungary, as also in Croatia and Slavonia, which are now incor-
porated with that kingdom. In aU of these tlie Greek is the
prevailing religion, and ancient ordinances still in force exclude
Protestants from the possession of land or office.
78 AUSTRIA. [CH.
their matrimoniftl unions beyond the pale of the
Roman Catholic church. The latter (the actual Pst-
latine of Hungary) has had three consorts^ all of dif-
ferent religious professions — ^the first being a mem*
ber of the Greek church, the second of the Reformed
or Calvinistic, and the third of the Lutheran commu-
nion. The Archduke Charles is now the widower
of a Lutheran princess, whose demise a few years
since afforded an interesting illustration of the senti-
ments and practice of the late emperor in matters of
religious observance. It is the usual custom for the
remains of members of the imperial family to be con*
veyed in state to the cathedral church of St. Stephen^
for the performance of the funeral rites, and thence
to be transferred to the imperial vault in another dis-
trict of the city. The emperor gave directions for
the usual observance of the mournful solemnities ;
but the deceased having died^ as she had lived, a
Protestant, he ordered that the religious offices of her
ovm communion should be alone performed. The
archbishop of Vienna, at the desire of the nuncio,
obtained an interview with the emperor, and repre-
sented the incongruity of Protestant services being
exhibited in the Catholic cathedral. *' Tell the
nuncio," said Francis, *^ that this is no affair of his :
the archduchess must be buried as I have directed ;"
and so she was. The corpse was conveyed with all
accustomed pomp to the cathedral, attended by the
imperial family: there the Protestant services were
performed, and the funeral oration pronounced by the
ly.] RELIGION. 71^
ehief of the Lutheran consistory ; and from thence
die cold remains passed on in the sam^ solemn state
to their long homC) In the imperial vault beineath the
Capnchin convent*
Between the years 1771 and 1779 that extensive
and» in some respects, excessive church reform was
nndertaken by Joseph II ., which had been partially
contemplated daring the reign of his predecessor
Maria Theresa, and which h«s essentially modelled
die existing features of the establishment The first
and heaviest blow fell tpon the monasteries. On the
assertion of principles wholly in oppositiofn to the
prayers and the policy of Rome, it was die^^feed that
the regular clergy should be in all points subordinate
to the seculars ; that the mendicancy of friars should
cease ; ^md that the religious commanities thenceforth
allowed to exist, whether belonging to proprietary
ordei-s or otherwise, should be limited to such num-
bers only as could be actually employed in pastoral
or sehoiastic duties. In carrying these decrees into
effect, the great majority of the monastic houses were
absolutely suppressed ; and their communities conso-
lidated, by the drafthig together of several in one
larger establishment of the same order. Of the men-*
dicant friars many were pensioned for life, and the
comparatively few who retained their monai^tic sta-
tion were no longer allowed to derive support for
themselves or their convent, by contributions raised
from the public. With regard to their wealthier
brethren, on the ground that individual poverty was
80 AmTBIA* [CH.
a common vow in every order alike» the dodxinewa»
laid down, that provided eaeh monk, now existing ot
in future to be admitted, received the peraooal allciw***
ances beconuug Us station, the immense properties
belonging to the Benedictines, CSstertians, and other
proprietary communities, in thnr corporate capa«(
city, were subject to the control and di^osal of the
state. Leaving therefore to each house which was
preserved, so much of property as was deemed neo»*
sary for its wants, the residue was confiscated ; but
Joseph did not^ like Henry of England, bestow <hia
wealthy booty on favourites and courtiers. Some
smaller portion of it, as iron-foundries, glass-works,
and other industrial establishments^ he reserved for
the civil government, together with, in some instances,
forests and lands, and buildings whidhi were attached
to them, and from which their necessary fuel and pro*,
visions were obtained ; but the residue he poured into a
fund existing in each province termed the *^ religious
fund" or "chest" (religiona-fond, religians-kasse)^
which has been thenceforward, and now is, devoted
to objects connected with the spiritual wants or the.
education of the people. The reforming energies of
Joseph were next exercised on the secular clergy.
He erected and suppressed bishoprics; re-modelled
cathedral establishments ; gave new laws to episcopal
jurisdictions ; abolished multitudes of oratories which
had b^en seiTed by mendicant friars; and established
a large number of new parishes, of which the churches
were buUt, and the ministers mainly endowed, from
IT.] BBLIGION. 81
the proceeds of the religious fund. Neither was the
iaterferenoe of this great sovereiga confined to the ex-
ternal order and tlie temporalities of the church. It
extended also to its discipline, and even to its rituals ;
and amid the innovations introduced by him and per-
petuated by his successors^ no one is more remarkable
than the p^ormance of the greater portion of the
services in the vernacular tongue. The mass, that
peculiar sacramental and sacrificial office which is
celebrated by the priest alone in behalf of the congre-
gation, remains in Latin ; but the devoticmal exer-
cises in which the people join, the prayers, litanies,
and psalms, are, since the days of Joseph, all in
German ; and, amid the intellectual gratifications (^
Vienna, few perhaps are greater, than, within the
solemn walls of its magnificent cathedra], to hear the
swell of a thousand voices combined in offering the
choral tribute of prayer and praise, in language
which all, though Romanists, can understand and
feel. It was in vain that the pope remonstrated
against these accumulated infractions of what was
termed, at Rome, the unity of Catholic discipline and
practice. It was in vain that he even undertook a
journey to Vienna, for the purpose of personal con-
ference. The emperor received his venerable guest
with every mark of deferential reverence. He lodged
him in the palace, and passed with him a portion of
each day in the courtesies of conversational inter-
course ; but he ever declined discussions on the ob-
VOL. II. G
83 AUSTRIA. [CH.
jeots of the pontiff's visit ; and his hcdiness returned
to Rome without having effected the slightest im*
pression on the mind or the decisions of his imperial
host*
Attacks^ equally vehement vnth those directed
against the church, were made, during the ten years
of Joseph's reign, upon almost every institution of
the state, as well as on the fundamental laws of pro-
perty in all parts of his dominions. In Hungary his
proceedings were peculiarly arbitrary. Decided on
re-modelling the government, and anxious, with this
view, to avoid the control of coronation oaths and con*
stitutional forms, he never submitted to be crowned ;
nor, during the whole of his reign^ would he con-
sent to assemble a diet; and thus, exempted from
conscientious scruples, he laid prostrate, by a series
of ordinances^ the entire constitution of that ancient
kingdom. Like the projects, however, of other ardent
theonsts, whose sanguine temperament has outrun
the bounds of practical wisdom, every one of the in-
novations of Joseph) both in Hungary and in 6er*
many, were doomed to be repealed, even by himself
before his decease — with the exception only of those
which related to the church* These have been oon*
firmed by the lapse of years, for they were effected
in unison witib the feelings of the public. They have
wcnited great and substantial benefits ; and, above
all, his celebrated "Toleration Edict," which still
forms the constitutional code of all the non-Romish
1 Y» ] BKMGION. 83
subjects of the empire (exclusive of Hungary), is an
imperishable monument of his liberality of sentiment
and of his statesman-like wisdom.
I have shown in the former chapters the aggre-
gate numbers of the popultition, according to their
several religions. I will now advert to those of the
respective clergy. The number of the secular clergy,
Roman Catholic and United Greek (namely, persons
of the Romish communion, but administering the
mass and services in the Greek tongue), is 48,589,
whereof 7374 are in Hungary. The monastic orders,
of ^hich nearly 80,000 were numbered in the days of
Joseph, contain now only 9896 individuals of both
sexes (whereof 3056 are in Hungary J, thus com-
posed :-^-Roman Catholics, males 6826, females
2697 ; United Greek, all male, 74. There are like-
wise in Hungary 149 monks of the not-united or
Oriental Greek communion. The clergy of the Pro-
testant confessions^ and the Oriental Greeks, com-
prise together 10,803, including, however, the 149
Oriental monks just mentioned ; and of this number
6449 are in Hungary.
It has been stated that the great principle pervad-
ing the whole ecclesiastical government is the su-
premacy of the civil sovereign over the persons, the
property, the beneficiary appointments, and even, it
84 AUSTRIA. [CH.
may be added, the spirituid functions of the clergy of
all denominations. Let ns first consider the condi-
tion of the Raman Catholic establishment. The jus
placeti is rigidly enforced in every part of the empire,
and every person conmiunicating a papal bull, edict,
or ordinances, without the previous sanction of the
crown, is subject to what are, with us, the pains and
penalties of premunire— confiscation of property, and
imprisonment of person*. The sole exception is in
cases of absolutions to individuals granted by the Ro-
man penitentiary, in those rare and unimportant cases
which are technically called ''cases of conscience*'
only, or where private reputation is concerned, and
admitting of no delay. On all else, the jiLs placeti
is universal over all the imperial dominions ; and so
far is the imperial control domestically extended, that
no Austrian subject can be excommunicated, either by
a native ecclesiastical authority, or by the sovereign
pontiff himself, without the emperor's consent.
The right of episcopal nomination varies somewhat
in practice or form in the different states. In Hun-
gary it is not only in the crown absolutely, but the
bishop so appointed enters on his functions and juris-
diction without awaiting the papal confirmation. In
Austria, Bohemia, Styria, &c., the appointment is
equally in the crown, with or without the formality
** The last instance of this infliction was, if I mistake not, in the
case of a Hungarian bishop, who intimated an appeal to the pope
against an ordinance of Joseph II. He was divested of his bene-
fice, and suffered confiscation of all his property.
lY.] RELIGION* 85
of cong^ delire; but requires the confirmation
from Rome before the episcopal jurisdiction can be
exercised. In the Italian provinces the nomination
is formally, but not really, somewhat more connected
with Rome. The archbishop of Milan and his four
suffragans are indeed appointed by the emperor ; but,
as regards these last (the suffragans) , he ought pro-
perly " to attend to the papal recommendatioi?, unless
having great cause to do otherwise." The appoint-
ment of the Patriarch of Venice, which vested in the
senate so long as the republic existed, has been since
assumed by the crown. To vacant Venetian bishop-
rics, the ancient custom was for the pope formally to
appoint, preferring, however, always the first on the
list of three names transmitted to Rome by the senate ;
and this form is, if I mistake not, still observed.
Neither are the right of nomination and the jtis placeti,
powerfiil as they are, the only protections afforded
against Romish encroachment. Another^ of much
importance, exists in the declaration of the ^.ncient
independence of the German church, by the congress
of ecclesiastical electors at Enns in 1786, comprised
in twenty-three important articles, all of which were
confirmed by the emperor. By them, the administra-
tion and judicial power of nuncios are disavowed ;
the ancient German mode of episcopal election as-*
serted ; and a declaration made that no bulls, briefs,
or ordinances of the pope shall be binding on the
bishops, unless the latter regularly signify their
formal consent, which, as regards those in the Aus-
86 AUSTRIA. [CH.
trian states, can nerer be given wtthont the prmous
sanction of the crown.
Hus the Aostiian Borereign is, in pmnt d leal
power, the eflSsctiFe head of the church ; and it mnst
be added that he sometimes exerdaes that power not
exactly with due respect to decorum <nr to canonical
rule— as occurred in the instance of an imperial
prince appointed primate of Hungary in 1807, at
the age of twenty-ime ^ and more recently in that of
a prince of the House of Schwarzenberg to the ardi*-
bishopric of Salzburg, at twraty-seven. That the
pope may have dissuaded sucli nominations is highly
probable : but he has generally found the emperors
very firm and decided, and has ultimately deemed it
expedient to confirm them.
In each diocese a eonsistory is formed, comprising
usually, although not invariably, the members of the
cathedral establishment, and some other officials.
These constitute the council of the bishop ; who, thus
aided, lias the supervifdon of all parochial, eleemosy-
nary, and scholastic institutions, excepting those
dependent on the non-Romish communities ; the in*-
spection of monasteries, and the investigation of
* This excellent young prince, for such he was, died in the
second year of his primacy, 1809, a victim to the zealoas dis-
charge of daties which it was no fault of his that he was Cttaou-
cally tok) young to perform, A pestilential fever raged in Hun-
gary, and was most violent 'in the hospitals of Pesth. The youth-
ful primate deemed it his duty to administer personally to the
sick and the dying. He passed much time in the hospitals, took
the disorder there, and died.
IV.] REUQION. 87
simply canonical offences of the clergy. He has much
of supervising duty, but no executive power ; for all
his functions are shared with the civil authorities, to
whom alone is committed the enforcement of law ;>
and even on those few points which are reserved for
episcopal cognizance, reports must be made to the
crown, and its previous or confirming sanction gene-
rally obtained. The former jurisdiction of bishops
over questions of birth and legitimacy, marriage and
divorce, wills and successions, has paased to the civil
tribunals : imperial edicts have pronounced the cir-
cumstances, canonical as well as civil, which consti-
tute a lawful marriage and divorce : dispensations for
impediments, if granted at all, are obtained with the
concurrence of the landesstelle of the province, or the
kreisampt of the district — ^in many cases without any
reference to the spiritual functionaries ; and in the rare
circumstances of simply canonical character, wherein
it is still held that papal dispensation is requisite to
the marriage contract, the application must be made
through the landesstelle to the imperial chancery,
who, in. its discretion, forwards or withholds it, and
through which alone the reply must be promulgated.
A few years since, a query was submitted to the
crown on tiie subject of the marriages contracted by
Roman Catholic soldiers, without that permission of
their superior c^icers whidi the military code enjoins.
It was suggested that the sacramental character of
the solemnity constituted a real and indissoluble
union, although the parties might have thereby sub-
88 AUSTRIA. [CH«
jeeted themselves to civil punishment: but an im-
perial rescript addressed to all the provinces unscru-
pulously cut the difficulty, by simply declaiiiig ev^y
such marriage to be absolutely and ab imtio invalid.
Of parochial benefices the patronage is, as with
us, in various parties— the crown, the bishops, clerical
and lay corporations, and private individuals— -tl^
right of nomination lapsing to the bishop, when not
exercised within six weeks, if the patron be within the
realm, or within three months, if absent firom it. One
consequence resulting from the sweeping reforms of
Joseph, and experienced a very few years after his
decease in 1790, was the insuflBiciency of the clergy in
point of numbers for the performance of the duties
assigned to them. The monastic bodies ceased to fill
up the vacancies of their numbers even to the extent
still allowed by law, when it was found that a life of
active and laborious exertion must follow the pro^
fession of the vows ; and the existing secular schools
of theology were inadequate to supply candidates for
orders, endowed with those higher attainments which
were now first required in parochial ministers. With
a view to remedy these deficiencies, edicts were issued
in the early part of the reign of Francis, scarcely less
important than those of his predecessor Joseph, and
all tending to carry out the principles of his reforms
in such manner as to render them practically usefjil.
The monastic clergy, who had hitherto exercised a
kind of collateral ministry with the incumbent, were
restrained from all interference in the spiritual charge
IV.] RELIGION. 89
of the parishes ; — the duties of the altar, the confes*
sional, and the pulpit^ the administration of the
sacraments, and the supervision of popular education,
being confined alone to the incumbent, who was
allowed the aid of one, two, or at most three assistants,
according to the extent of the population, all acting
under his own direction, and specially licensed by
the civil power. The cathedral chapters were re-
duced to such number of prebendaries, canons, and
other officials, as the landesstelle of each province
might report to be expedieirt. The establishments of
churches containing shrines of pilgrimage were re*
formed, or, to speak more correctly, were dissolved ;*
since all those extra-ceremonials which were calcu-
lated only to excite and attract devotees were pro-
hibited — all supernumerary ministers dismissed — ^and
the shrines committed to a single priest, who was
permitted to celebrate only the ordinary offices of the
altar. An immediate effect of these and other regu-
lations of the same character, was the great redun-
dancy of unemployed clergy in cities and towns, who
were now interdicted from the performance of those
extra masses and services whence their incomes had
been previously derived ; while in the country districts,
on the« other hand, the number of duly-qualified
clergy was inadequate for the parochial duties* To
meet this new difficulty, a further act of autocracy
was decided on. As the crown had already asserted
♦ To tlis regulating ordinance there were some special cxcep-
tions in Gallicia, and in the vidnity of Vienna*
90 AUSTRIA. [CH.
its authority over the property of the churchy it now
assumed a similar power over the persons of its
ministers ; and, under pain of total destitution, and
perhaps of penal inflictions also, the unemployed
clergy in the towns were arbitrarily removed, to take
the charge of the new benefices which had been re-
cently created. In order to provide against future
deficiency, episcopal seminaries were at the same
time established or confirmed in every diocese : their
existing endowments secured to them, and others
created, either from the revenues of the diocese, or
from the funds of the state ; and rules laid down in
these and other institutions, for the training of candi«
dates for holy orders. During the long succeeding
period of the reign of Francis, a variety of constitu-
tion^ ordinances were issued, either fiirther to
correct abuses, or to introduce improvements ; — and
hence has been gradually moulded the existing eccle-
siastical system, of which it is now necessary to enter
into some further details.
The episcopal seminaries of each diocese are sup-
ported partly by ancient endowments; partly by grants
from the diocesan chest or religious fimds; by
payments fix>m pupUs, and by contributions fiiom the
bishop. In each seminary are gratuitously boarded
and educated a certain number of poor students ap-
pointed chiefly by the landesstelle, or selected on
public examination from the classical schools ; while
from those not so nominated a certain payment is
received. The monasteries, also, are mostly required.
IV.] BEUOION. 91
to board, lodge, and educate within their walls a
fixed number of pupils, some gratuitously, and others
on regulated payments. These seminaries, episcopal
and monastic, are generally connected with the uni-
yersities, or so subordinate to them, that the students
either pass from the one to the other, or contempo-
raneously attend the university courses ; but in those
episcopal schools which are completely organized, pro*-
fessors of the three faculties are established, not by
the bishops, but by the civil government, whose lec-
tures and testimonials stand in lieu of those obtained
at the universities. The instruction imparted is
strictly defined by imperial edict ; absolutely uni-
form ; and, like every species of education in Austria,
essentially practical. It embraces all which, in the
view of the government, may render the future
candidate for orders a useful parochial minister ; and
hence, while scholastic divinity is almost neglected,
no one can be inducted or appointed to a benefice,
without producing, among the multitude of other
certificates, those which especially attest his pro-
ficiency in what the Austrians term the science of
** Paedagogy," as well as in such statistical arithmetic
as will liable him properly to account for the cha-
ritable funds. Members of monastic orders are
excluded from holding parodaial benefices, excepting
tiiose which are in the direct patronage of their own
communities ; and to these they can only be presented
on the production of similar testimonials, with regard
to education^ conduct, and capabilities of every kind.
92 AUSTRIA. [CH.
as those required from seculars. By the authority
of the laodesstelle they may be appointed as tusis^
tants to an incumbent, where such assistants are
required and allowed ; but neither in the chapel of
the monastery (except as it sometimes occurs where
the chapel is itself also a parish church), nor else-*
where beyond their walls, are they permitted to
receive confessions, administer sacraments, or per*
form any spiritual office, save as the lawfidly-ap*
pointed subordinates of the incumbent, and under his
especial direction. Regulations are enforced for the
punishment of negligence, remissness, or immorality
in the parochial clergy — ^for their succour in tempo-
rary need — and their comfortable provision in cases
of infirmity or superannuation . Every district has its
hreis^dechant, exercising functions similar to those
of our archdeacons, whose duty it is to represent
irregularities and deficiencies to the consistory, by
whom they are reported to the landesstelle. Ministers
of irregular or negligent habits, after attempts to
reclaim them by admonition and fine, are removed to
some penitentiary monastery, wherein they are con-
fined for a period, or for life, on an allowance of a
few kreutzers daily for sustenance, — ^their places-
being supplied under the direction of the civil autho-
rities. If the inoimbent require temporary assis-
tance, a helper is appointed for him, either wholly at
his own expense, or partially so, as the landesstelle,
on the report of the consistory and other functionaries,
may conceive to meet the justice of the case. If he
IV.] RELIGION. 93
be to all appearance permanently disabled, although
not arrived at advanced age, he is pensioned for life
from the religions fund, and his duties committed to
a sufastitate who receives the emoluments ; but when
the decrepitude or infirmities of years weigh down
the aged incumbent, he is neither removed from the
scene of his former usefulness, nor curtailed in the
enjoyment of his accustomed comforts. He is allowed
the option of retiring to the repose of a monastery,
should such be his desire, or he may remain in his
parochial mansion, stiU receiving the income of the
benefice ; and in this case his assistant is either pen-
sioned from the religious fund, or, if a member of a
regular order, is supported by the monastery to which
he belongs.
The incomes, both of the diocesan and the paro-
chial clergy, are derived from a variety of sources ; —
domains, manorial dues, endowments in land or pe-
cuniary funds, tithes, fees, and (as regards especially
the newly-created parishes) allowances from the re-
ligious fund. Some of the more ancient archiepis-
copal sees have very large revenues, and the prelates
are surrounded with stately dignity : but of the actual
amount of their perscmal incomes it is very difficult
to form even an approximate estimate, as a small
part only of these sums, which are collected in their
name, is devoted to their actual use.* The residue
* The primatial see of Gran in Hungary is among' the wealthi-
est of Europe, and its income, varying with the price of produce,
amounts, probably, irom 30,000/. to 60,000/. sterling per annum.
94 AUSTRIA. [CH.
passes to the diocesan chest, and is applied to the
support of establishments connected with educa-
tion and charity, the holding of courts, the repairs of
cathedrals and episcopal buildings, heavy oontribu*
tions to the State^ and stipendiary allowanees to pa**
rochial ministers. The parochial incumbent has,
in the older parishes, generally more or less of glebe
land, and other fixed endowments ; frequently tithe,
or stipend from the diocesan chest ; and, by ancient
custom, stated allowances by way of pecuniary con^
tributions from the parish. The surplice fees are
small ; and for the saying of extra masses, and other
supererogatory services, he can gain little or no ema^
lument, as the regulations of the civil government
on these points, if not absolutely prohibitory, are at
all events very restrictive. In the more newly-con-
stituted parishes, contributions are frequently assessed
on the parishioners, which, having been at first vo*-
luntary, have now by custom become obligatory; and,
where necessity so requires, allowances are made
from the religious fund. In Hungary, where the
influence of the crown is small, and ecclesiastical
reform has less prevailed, many abuses exist, from
which the German States are nearly exempt. The
clergy are there far less subordinate to the civil
authorities^-^luralities and non*residences abovindr^
and the crown is chargeable with the culpable irre^
gularity of prolonging the vacancies in wealthy sees,
in order that the revenues, or at all events that por-
tion of them which formed the personal income of
IV.] RELIGION. 93
the prelate, may pass into its coffers, or be admini*
stered under its direction. Happily the superior
system of church government in the German pro*
vinces affords less temptation for this abuse ; as the
revenues of vacant benefices, episcopal and paro-
chial, are paid, not to the imperial exchequer, but to
the religious fund of the province.
In a country so closely connected with the see of
Rome, and of which the institutions have until of
late years so little varied, the law and practice of
tithe is a matter of some interest. On the original
principle of ecclesiastical law, the right of the church
to tithe applied to all tjie produce of the soil ; as it
is found embodied in the concise Hungarian act of
the year 1000, conceived in these words : — " Si cui
Deus decem dederit in anno, decimas Deo det.'*
The present practice, however, throughout both
Hungary and all the German dominions of the em-
peror, makes tithes depend wholly on custom. No
abstract right is admitted in either the spiritual or
civil courts. A long custom must be proved ; and
hence it happens that the whole of the rich Hun-
garian district of the Bannat, and all other lands
brought, like it, into cultivation in recent times, ^te
not subject to tithe at all. The tithe> when paid,
goes, as a general pi'actice, to the episcopal chest of
the diocese, conformably to what was, probably, in
most countries, the usual custom of the Christian
church in early times ; from which chest, as before
observed, the general expenses of the diocese are
96 AUSTRIA.: [icih.
partly borne, and stipends often paitit to ther parisbi
ministers. A good deal of the older land^ftlBO ik
now either tithe-free, or the tithe is paid toi the ma*
norial lord: both which oircuiiistafiees have arttei^
from the bishops having fermeriy found it too ex-r'
pensive and difficult to collect the tithe in poorly^
cultivated parishes; and having yielded it to the
manorial lords, on condition of the iattsr paying
stipends to the officiating priest. If such lands fell
afterwards into the personal jwoperty of the lord
himself, they became tithe free of course. If they
remained in the hands of others, holding feudally
under the lord, the tithe became, as it now often is,
payable to the lord instead of to the church ; and in
many cases he now receives it without fulfilling the
condition of paying the stipend of the minister — ^an
exemption which he may first have procured for
himself by force or intimidation, and which custom
(which rules all in matter of tithe and stipend) has
now made law. The incumbents, in such cases as
these, rely mainly on the contributions of their flocks ;
and in some places cust(»n has even established a
double clerical tithe-^the one taken by the lord, in
virtue of an ancient cession from the bi^op — the
other paid to the minister, who, in early times, de«
frauded of his stipend from the lord, had recourse to
the charity of his parishioners, which granted him
sometimes a full second tithe. More of tithe is still
paid in produce than in cash, but a great deal has
been commuted; and this commutation, which the
I?.] RBUOION. 97
policy ^ the government promotes, is of permanent
validity, when sanctioned by the imperial KrUsampt.
But, perhaps, the most peculiar feature of the
Austrian ecclesiastieal system is the administration
of the monastic communities : their partial preserve-
ticm, under the rules of their respective orders, com-
bined with utt^ severance from papal authority ; and
their compulsory adaptation to the purposes of prae*
tical usefulness, under the direction of the secular
and the civil powers. By the Emperor Joseph the
great principle was laid down, that these bodies
should be allowed to exist only for the purposes of
affording instruction to youth, and for the cure of souls
in those few cases wherein the pastoral duties could
not be adequately or justly discharged by seculars*
That principle it has been the object of later edicts
to carry into effect ; among the most important of
which are those of 1792 and 1801, issued by the
late Emperor Francis. Under the provisions of the
last of these, a commission was appointed, jointly hy
the bishop and the landesstelle in each diocese, for
the examination of the monasteries within its range ;
and, on their report, regulations were made, fixing
the number of individuals whereof each community
should thenceforth consist, and the species and extent
of duties which each should be required to under-
take. As the law now stands fixed by these and
subsequent ordinances, some dated as late as 1836,
the monastic bodies are restricted froili all commu*
nication with the Pope, or with the chiefs of their
VOL. II. H
98 AUSTRIA. [CH.
pespective orders, while these chiefs remie hejoni
the Austrian frontier. They are made immediately
subordinate to a '* proFincial superior/' estaUished
by the crown for each order in every province ; and
are all subjected to the jurisdiction of the bishop, and
to the general or special direction of the landes^
atelle. Each monastic house is inspected by the
kreis-dechant (the archdeacon) and the provincial
superior ; and at least once in three years is person<>-
ally visited by the bishop, who makes a full report of
their conditk>n to the emperor. Some houses are
allowed the management of their own domains, and
to others an administrator is appointed ; but in all
cases annual reports are made to the landesstelle, of
the number of members in each establishment, the
services in which they are employed either at home
or abroad, and the state of their schools, of their
pupils and novices. Detailed accounts are at the
same time rendered of their receipts and expendi-
ture, every item of which must, except in extraordi-
nary cases, have been previously sanctioned by the
landesstelle on prospective estimate; and all the
superfluous revenue is paid over to the religious or
charitable fund of the province. The domestic su-
perior, as well as the other functionaries requisite
for the executive duties, hold their offices usually tor
thtee years, with capability of re-election at the end
of that period. They are ostensibly chosen by the
body of the fathers, who from time to time assemble
from their several distant stations, in ** general college
IV. J RELIGION. 99
meeting;'* but each election must be approved by the
bishop, who has not only a v^to in eyery case^> b\^t
enjoys, after a shoft period of vacancy, the power of
nomination absolutely in himself. Of the mendi-^
cant orders, the very feyr commuQities which b^ye
not. been dissolved are allowed no longer to derive
support from the alms of the f^uthful, but receive
subsistence from the religious fund ; and* l^ke their
brethren the monks, are preserved only for educa-
tional and practical purposes. With the licence of
the bishop, which may he refused, — ^although, of
course, such refusal must and ought to be extremely
rare, — ^the i^acraments and services of the church may
be performed in the chapel of the monastery, to ife
immediate inmates ; but to th^m only, except where
the chapel is itself also a parish church^ Many of
the monasteries are required to bold within their
walls the gymnasium of the district for gratuitous
instruction in classics and geners^l learning; a^^d
others, to train instructors for the universities ; for
which objects they are compelled to keep their esta-
blishments at the full numbers required by the im-
perial regulation. To some is allowed the privilege
of receiving a certain number of boarders for edu-
cation, on regular payments ; and these the^ become
schools of the higher class, fpr the spns of noble and
wealthy families . Such especially are those of the
Benedictines, the ancient and venerable patrons of
learning ; at one of whose splendid monasteries, that
of Molk, on the Danube, we tbund an assembly of
h2
100 AUSTRIA/ [CH.
youths, bearing some of the highest names in the
empire, lodged, boarded, and educated: but the
species and manner of instruction, the books to be
read, and the hours for reading them, are as strictly
defined by edict for these as for any other establish-
ment ; and all the monastic pupils are subjected to
frequent examinations by secular professors.*
If it be inquired what are the means adopted for
enforcing on the regulars the performance of appa-
rently irksome functions, it may be sufficient to reply,
that whatever may have been the feelings of those
who were the early victims of Joseph's severity, the
present generation have been trained to the new sys-
tem of monastic duties ; and, like persons entering on
any worldly career, are prepared to fulfil them when
they take the vows. No one now enters a monastic
community, with the view of idle repose or abstract
contemplation. Candidates for admission to the
severer orders are obtained mainly from the inferior
classes of society, to whom the certainty of support,
as the reward of labour, is a paramount object ; and
to all the orders alike members are admitted only
after regular instruction in the schools, and during
the three years of noviciate, for the duties of their
future office. None are received but by vote of the
community, on the production of testimonials, and
with the sanction of the provincial superior : — suffi-
* For the nature and uniformity of the educational system, sec
the following Chapter.
IV.] RELIGION. 101
eient precautions, generally, against the admission of
those who are manifestly unfit ;— «and for contumacy,
after admission, there exist abundant methods of
correction under the orders of the laudesstelle or the
bishop, in the stoppage of allowances, removal to
less favoured stations, and even by penitential incar-
ceration or exile, with forfeiture of all provision. To
the fathers of St. B^iedict somewhat of greater in-
dulgence may be occasionally, though rarely, shown,
in deference to the services rendered to literature, in
every age, by that learned and venerable body.
Within those stately edifices which they are still
permitted to inhabit, and where the instruction of
youth forms their principal occupation, may be found
some few distinguished persons, tranquilly occupied
in literary and scientific studies, and from time to
time enriching the world with the results of their
learned labours : but these are exceptive cases ; and,
generally speaking, the position of an Austrian re-
gular ecclesiastic is far from an enviable station.
Always at the disposal of civil and secular functiona-
ries, he must submit to removal wheresover directed ;
but may not voluntarily quit the district of his com-
munity without special licence. He can hold no spi-
ritual benefice, except the few parochial cures in the
patronage of his monastery, but may be conunanded,
at the will of the bishop or the laudesstelle, to repair
as assistant to any other distant incumbent ; and even
in these cases, as if in fear lest a regular should per-
chance become too acceptable to the parishioners, he
102 AUSTRIA. [CH.
is not allowed to remain as parodhial assistant in one
place beyond a very few moikths. Whether witiiin
his monastery, or beyond its circuit, he receives a
small pecuniary allowance besides his board and
elothing, but is incompetent to inherit any private
property ; and should he, perchance, in the exereise
of his futtctions as university professor or otherwise,
have tnade some pecuniary savings, he may not even
dispose of these by wilL As fyit as mere worldly
considerations are concerned, his principal solace in
(lie discharge of his practical labours ifii the assurance
of his daily bread while health and vigour last, and
that of a tl^nquil retreat in his declining y^ears, within
those sacred walls where his early voWs were offered.
A few words on the Rblioiou^ FonD Will com-
plete the sketch of the Roman Catholic establish'-
ment. In each province ate certain funds— the r^-
Rgiaas fund, the educatioftni (studien) fund, and the
foot (arme^) ftind, resting on dotations, contributions,
and bequests. Of these, the most important in ektent
IS <^e t&Ugious Amd, as intx> it was poured the
larger ^rtion of the confiscated ittbtiastic property ;
find, as far as th^t pmperty consists of real estate still
undiidposed of, it is yet admihis^ered Ibr the benefit
iof this fund. It unfortunately happened, however,
that tfaonie large appropriations of Joseph fot the be^
nefit of Religion, w^ere not unmixed with some lete
disinterested vie#s towards the imn^iediate etigenci^
of die state. He caused the greatest part of the con-
fiscated domains to be sold, and the proceeds to b*
IV.] REUQION. 103
invested in government securities; a proceeding
whereby he obtained the immediate use of the capital,
and the annual interest only was paid over to the
admimstrators of the fund. As a necessary conse-
quence it has followed, that these investments have
shared the common fate of all other funded pro-
perty during the eventful reign of Francis. In all
its difficulties the crown respected the principle of
the endowments, nor, indeed, did it even withhold a
payment of tbe annual dividends to the creditors of
the state ; but as these dividends were paid in a forced
paper currency, which, after falling to a ruinous dis-
count, was replaced by another species of paper which
soon sunk to a similar depreciation,'*' the actual
amount on which interest is paid, in the present sound
and healthy state of the finances, does not equal one-
twelfth part of the original capital. While the reve**
nues of the religious fund have been thus reduced,
the claims upon it have vastly increased: new
churches have in all parts arisen ; the grand system
of gratuitous national education for every class has
been developed and confirmed ; and in taking on itself,
through the religious fund, the provision requisite for
the pastors and instructors, the Government has de-
served the high credit of allowing no difficulty on the
subject of finance to interfere with its arrangements,
to meet what are considered to be the wants and the
interests of the people. According to their existing
* The successive depreciation of the currency and its effects on
capital will be fully explained in a future Chapter on the Finances.
104 AUSTRIA. [CH«
^XHistitution, the religious, educational, and char^adble
funds are under the direction and control of the landes^
stelle ; dirougb whom the budgets of their respective
income and expenditure, as well as estimates of their
prospective disbursements* are annually presented for
the sanction of the imperial chancery. In addition
to. its regular receipts, arising from real or funded
property, the religious fund has many special sources
o( income, among which are the revenues of vacant
^nefices, contribution^ from episcopal chests^ a tax
on investitures and on public auctions, and a duly on
new preseptations, varying from ten to twenty per
cenjt. oq the first year's income of livings. If, from
these aggregate sources, an income arises in any one
province, exceeding the amount of the disbursements
within its circuit, the surplus is paid over to other pro-»
vini^al institutions of an analogous character ; sudi-
as those intended for the relief of the diseased. If^
on the other hand, the income falls short of the
estimated or real expenditure, as approved by the
landesstelle and sanctioned by the crown, the deficit
is paid by a grant from the imperial excheqi^r.
We turn now to the non-Romish subjects of the
empire, — and perceive a system of perfect toleration,
combined, as in the endowed establishment, with that
absolute controlling power in the crown, which may
be said to form the unity of principle in the Austriaii
rule. It ha^ been already stated, that every person ii^re*^
IV.] REUOICW. 105
gist^ed as belonging to some one known religkm, and
that these are dasM^ed, for the purposes of govern^
ment, under five general heads — the Romanists, the^
Greeks^ the liotherans, the Calvinists, and the Jews^
Until die reign of Joseph IL the Jews laboured
under heavy disabilities^ many of which were re-
moved by him, and the residue by Francis ; so that,
except in regard to some peculiar questions relating
to unions and divorces between Jews and Christians,
and the exclusion from certain trades* by the laws of
some municipalities, they enjoy an equality of right
in the Grerman proiinces^ with all other subjects.
The Greeks, besides their metropolitan and his seven
dufiragans in Hungary, have also an archbishop in
Gallicia, and bishops in several districts ; but the
Hebrew rulers and the Greek prelates are all named
or confirmed by the crown, and all matters of church**
government are subjected to its sanction. The sysh
tern of the two Protestant classes demands a notice
somewhat more detailed ; before entering <m which,
it must be premised that if a religious sect, not pro^
perly included within any of the five enumerated
classes, be sufficiently numerous to form a congrega*
tion (a circumstance of rare occurrence, except in
regard to foreigners), a licence is readily granted for
the performance of their religious offices in a private
* A general law prohibits Jews from carrying on the biisiness of
apothecaries in any part of the empire, and there may be some
other exceptional regulations ; but they can bold land and fill all
offices in the army and state.
106 AUSTRIA. [CH.
dwelling. To a clergyman of the church of England,
who intimated to the chief of police at Carlsbad his
wish to perform the service to his countrymen there
assembled, the reply was made, that ** his so doing
would be in perfect conformity with the Toleration
Edict, and with the feelings of the imperial govern-
ment ;" and, in point of fact, he did, during a part
of two seasons, administer publicly the services and
sacraments of the church, either in his own apart-
menta) or in those of seme other Englishman. Con-
gregations of various religionists are thus formed and
dissolved, at Vienna and in other places, as temporary
circumstances may occur to create them ; but, when
a permanent place of worship is any where esta-
blished, it is usually registered as appertaining to
that one of the five principal classes, to which it is
most nearly assimilated ; and thus, when a church of
England chapel was opened at Trieste, the minister
was directed, as a matter of formal regularity, which
however has led to no other consequence, to hold him-
self subordinate to the Lutheran synod at Vienna.
The two formally established forms of Protestant
Christianity are those of the Lutherans, holding the
confession of Augsburg, and the Calvinists, holding
that of Geneva. For each of these communities, a
eentral consistory is formed at Vienna, having juris-
diction over the whole of the empire, (with the
exception of Hungary and Transylvania,) the mem-
bers of which are nominated or approved by the
crown. Under these bodies, the empire is divided,
IV.] RELIGION. 107
for the purposes d discipline, into districts and ju-
lifidictioDS, corresponding in character and object^
although not in dimensional extent, with the dioceses,
archdeaconries, and parishes of the Romish church.
In evtery province or large district is established for
each confession a mperintendant, under whom each
smaller district into whii^h the province is divided
kks a senior ; and it is so arranged, that one senior
shall be appointed over each ten communities or
parishes, when so many exist within the range of one
superintendence. The precise details of these ar^
mngements, as well as the extent of the districts,
must vary with the greater or smaller numbers of the
Protestant population ; but the principle of the
graduated subordination is universal, and strictly
enforced alike on the professors of the Lutheran and
Calvini«tic ca*eed. Wheresoever Protestants exist
in sufficient number and opulence to take on them^
selves the expenses of parochial establishments, they
are empowered to build a church, under authority of
the crown, and to endow it with glebe or other pro-
vision. The establishment consists of the minister,
two or four vor^tehersy (or deacons, in the Galvimstic
sense of the word,) and a council of twelve assessors
or eldei^. These meet in parochial council on all
matters concerning the parish ; but always in pre-
sence of a commissary from the imperial kreisampt,
without whose sanction all their resolutions are
invalid. The parish treasure is under the joint cus-
tody of the minister and of one of the deacons ; who
108 AUSTRIA. [CH.
have faculty to expend at will as fiu* as tweofy/^five
florins, (£2. 10«. sterling!) but no payment above
that sum may be made without the authority of tiie
kreisampt, to whom also ^e accounts of income and
expenditure, together with estimates of future dist
bursement, are annually submitted, Amcmg these
itemsi a proper stipend is fixed for the minister, pre^
served by the authority of the kriesampt from arbi^
trary fluctuation ; and when the endowment is insuf*
ficient for its payment, the residue, as well as the
other requisite means for parochial necessities, are
obtained by an assessment on the congregation ; which,
although professedly voluntary, is, " after many exhor-
tations addressed to the consciences" of the reluctant
parties, ultimately enforced on them by the authority
of the kreisampt. The parochial ministers are all
appointed by the consistory at Vienna, from three
candidates proposed by the superintendent or his
subordinate senior, but require the confirmation of
the imperial landesstelle. Their education is ob-
tained either at Protestant seminaries, which are
allowed to exist under the same regulations with
those of the Romanists, or, if passing through the
general course of instruction at the haupt*school
and the gymnasium, the certificates of the senior or
superintendent, as to religious proficiency, stand in
lieu of these from the corresponding fimctionaries for
the Romish communion ; and degrees in divinity are
obtained in the Protestant College at Vienna* The
senior is the supervisor of all matters connected both
IV.] RELIGION. 109
with the churches of his district, and with the edu-
cation of the youth of his own communion ; of which
latter the more immediate charge falls on the offici-
ating minister, whether the pupils be instructed in
dktinct establishments or intermixed with those pro*
fessing different creeds. To the superintendent
belong, as to discipline^ functions of an episcopal
character. Either in person, or by deputation to a
senior, he makes an annual visitation of his diocese,
if such it may be called, repoi*ting to the consistory
of his communion at Vienna, and to the landesstelle
or the kreisampt, all he may find amiss. He conse-
crates new churches; administers confirmation (a
duty especially directed by imperial edict to be
performed on all Protestant youth) ; examines and
ordains ministers ; gives licences to preach, without
which the ministers are restricted to the use oi
authorized homilies ; recommends candidates for the
college of Vienna ; and enforces discipline and good
government in every department. These high func-
tionaries are appointed by the consistory, but approved,
and thus, in fact, nominated, by the crown; and
derive their emoluments pardy from rates levied on
the communities over which they preside, and partly
from the religious fimd. The supremacy over the
whole body rests with the consistories at Vienna ; if
indeed that can be termed supremacy, which may be
exercised only under the controlling sanction of an
imperial commissioner. The consistories appoint,
and, in conjunction with the landesstelle, displace^
1 10 AUSTRIA. [CH.
the parochial ministers; inrestigate delinquencies;
bold a kind of concurrent jurisdiction with the civil
power over eleemosynary and educational institutions ;
receive, and arrange for the crovm, financial and
statistical reports ; and would, by their general and
special edicts, regulate the discipline and doctrine of
their respective communions, but that they, as well
as their brethren of the Romish persuasion, are
usually saved much of the trouble of so doing, by the
immediate ordinances of the emperor. One among
the duties of the consistory is, or rather has been, to
prepare or sanction all books of education or re-*
ligious instruction to be used in schools ; hymns and
psalms for congregations; and sermons, i^id even
forms of prayer, to be read by those who are not
licensed to preach. Private conventicles are pro-»
hibited, and unauthorized expounders of doctrine
severely punished ; but Protestants, living at a distance
from their church, are allowed to assemble in a
licensed room, where some person-r-rpreference being
given to the schoolmaster — ^may read the Scriptures,
together with some one of the printed homilies and
prayers put forth by the consistory and sanctioned by
the government.
Among the ordinances promulgated for the guid^
ance of the reformed churches by their Roman
Catholic sovereign, some are not a little remarkable.
I have one before me^ issued in the latter years of
the deceased emperor, Francis, in which the follow-
ing duties, amidst many others, are strictly enjoined
IV.] RELIGION. Ill
on the superintendents : — ^to give out theses annually
to the preachers for themes in all matters of theo^
logy, in order that their soundness and unity of
doctrine may be preserved; to establish reading
societies, provided with clerical books approved by
the consistory ; to give heed that those books only are
used at schools vrbich the consistory approve ; and
that the Protestant youth, having been duly in-
structed and prepared, be brought to the super-
intendent for confirmation at the age of fourteen.
The ordinance goes on to direct that the parochial
ministers shall administer duly the sacraments,
catechise in churches and schools, be diligent ''in
reading the Scriptures, especially those of the New
Testament," and in expounding them according to
the instructions which each superintendent is bound
to give ; in their sermons to cause no controversy by
new expositions or reasonings contrary to received
opinions, " or to waste time in fruitless speculations,'-'
but simply, and in simple language, to inculcate faith
and morality. Ministers who disobey these instruc-
tu>ns, and especially those who preach against other
forms of religion, are to be denounced to the con-
sistory and the kreisampt ; and, on repetition o( the
offence, after due admonition, to be suspended from
their cures.
These regulations breathe the spirit of the Aus-
trian rule. Peace is its aim and its delight; and
it sternly compresses the elements of disturbance, in
every branch of the civil and religious administra-
113 AUBTmA. [c«.
tion. Yet, widi all the avowed eqii^ty. oi tolentr
tion, it cannot be denied that some shade of {loeferen^
tial privilege is enjoyed by the Roman Cathdie
church, of which, in Hungary at least, the Protes*
tants have made great complaint, and which, unless
closely watched by the government, might be liable
to considerable abuse. For instance, in mixed mar<^
riages, where the father is Romanist, att the chfldmn
must be brought up in the faith of Rome ; but where
the father is Protestant, the sans only follow hi^
creed, and the daughters that of the mother. Again,
in cases of conversion from one communion to an*
other, the convert to Romanism is at once, and on his
own desire, received into the bosom of the church;
but the Romanist may not be received into a Pro-
testant community, until he shall have submitted to
exhortations and instructions during six weeks from
the Romish minister of the parish, and which may
be even extended to six weeks more, in alleged cases
bf ^* stupid obstinacy." A party, moreover, is popu-
larly supposed to exist at Vienna, who are very zeal-
bus for conversions to the church of Rome; and
certain it is, that in some parts of the empire, where
the Greek faith is the most prevalent, much bad
feeling has arisen from the over-ardent labours of
Romish missionaries. Were the late emperor stifl
on the throne, such undue zeal would be repressed ;
and it may be hoped that the able advisers of the
present sovereign, who appears to have all the good
intentions, but not the health or the eniergies, of his
frtbisr, will toffiee to enforce tlie establiehed policy of
tiie gd^6rimietit^ and U> repress all tendency to prac-
ticeSj idiieh^ if permitted to prevail, might endanger
in more ways tiian one the best interests of the
impure.*
' lliese points of distinction, however, it must be al-
lowed, ai^ of little real importance in their practice
effect ; and, as regards general rights and privileges,
all creeds, at any rate all Christian* creeds, stand on
ia fair equality. Except as regards the payment of
tithe, in the manner already explained, no one con-^
tributes to the support of a church whereof he is not
a member. None but Roman Catholics are subject
to the Roman Catholic spiritual tribunals. The
Greek bishops f have tribunals of their own for tlie
members of their own communion ; and the Pro-
testants have jurisdiction in matters of conscience and
* Od certain occurrenoes reputed to have recently taken place
in Tyrol, I make no observation, as I much discredit the rq)orted
facts. On all points either of theory or practice, connected with
politics or religion, a tolerably enlarged experience of life has
compelled me to receive with extreme caution the charges pre-
ferred by those, who differ in opinion from the parties against
tdfeum the chaiges are brou^t.
t In Hungary the Greek church has a peculiar orgaiii;satioii9
with an archbishop and seven suffragans, who have seats in the
upper house of Diet ; but I abstain from entering into the details
of that establishment, or of the circumstances peculiarly regarding
the Protestants of Hungary, the object of the present notices
teng confined to the German states, and the general policy of
the imperial government.
VOL. II. I
1 14 AUSTRIA. [CH.
ifisctplkte in their own consistories. The Protestant^
yield no aid in money or labour to the repair of the
Roman Catholic churches, save only that the lord of
the soil, whatever be his creed, must grant mere
land for the erection of a church of any persuasion
when required by the landesstelle to do so. The
Protestants may have their schools and places of
education, public or private, and may administer aU
religious endowments of their own, subject, like thos^
of the Romanists, to the supervision of the crown ;
and the censorship of their religious books is confided
wholly to Protestants, " indiscreet reflections" on
other religions being alone forbidden. One result of
this toleration has been, that, in Hungary, where the
Protestants are very numerous, their communities
have, since the edict of Joseph II. in 1786, nearly
tripled ; and no doubt can be entertained that their
number is still largely on the increase. In the
German States they less abound ; but there, as in
all the dominions of the empire, the powerful arm of
the government protects them, crushing controversy
both in the pulpit and the press; and thus the
law, if properly administered, silences religious ani-
mosities, and prevents the excitation of the most
unchristian passions, in the asserted cause of Christi-
anity itself. Factious spirit and party pride are
not called forth in support of the obstinacy of error ;
and the example of superior practice, that real fruit
whereby the tree is to be known, has, in my belief,
the principal merit of the conversions that are
IV.] RELIGION. 115
made. In the Roman Catholic church, the system,
as far as it prevails, of paying tithe into the dio-
cesan chest, whatever be its collateral evils, ap-
pears to have some decided advantages. The mi-
nister is thereby preserved from all pecuniary col-,
lision with his flock : he has neither adverse interest
nor feelings. As regards the usefulness of his pas-
toral character, his removal from all civil charge
enables him to be the mediator between casual de-
linquency and the sternness of the law — ^the ever-
ready mimster of peace and consolation. Selfishness,
pride, and human frailty, will of course be found
amoiig them, as in every considerable body of men :
but, my impression is, that, taken as a class, the
Austrian clergy are useful and diligent, respectable
and respected.
I 2
1 16 [CH.
CHAPTER V.
Education. — ObBervations on the Education of Southern Europe,
of France, and of non- Austrian Germany — Austrian system of
Education — Its Objects, Principles, and absolute Uniformity,
. under every circumstance — ^Regular Gradation of Schools, and
of scholastic Superintendence — ^Regulations regarding non-
Romanists — ^Nature of the Instruction — Popular Schools ; their
System and Government — Gymnasial Schools and Universi-
4
ties — Expenses of the Educational System — Distinct Institu-
tions-— Private Tutors and Private Academies — Ordinances of
Francis II. — Number of Persons receiving Education — Induce-
ments to Education — ^Nature and Effects of the ^* Poor Stu-
dent" System in Germany — Its disfavour in Austria — Contrast
between the Austrian and other Grerman Universities — Effects
of Austrian Education on the intellectual and moral Character.
If we contemplate the discordant systems established
in different countries for the training of the youthful
mind, we shall experience no surprise at effects hay-
ing been produced, not only dissimilar from each
other, but, in some instances it may be feared, actu-
ally repugnant to that amelioration of intellectual and
moral condition, which is the professed object of all
education. In the southern nations of Europe,
wherein the maxims of Rome are the most predomi-
nant, the characteristic principle which pervades every
grade of instruction is an unhesitating submission to
the dogmas of a professedly infallible church ; not
v.] EDUCATION. 117
simply as those dogmas may be understood by the
more enlightened members of that church itself, but
as they are laid down by every ignorant and fanatical
individual who may claim to be an authorised minis*
ter of the altar. A total submission is demanded to
aU asserted authority, civil as well as ecclesiastical, as
resting equally on the foundation of super-human
ordinance. All that is propounded must be believed;
all that pretends to right must be obeyed. To this,
indeed, in a more restricted degree, as a principle of
early training, the sound practical philanthropist may
not be unwilling altogether to withhold his assent.
He will admit that education, not founded on reli*
gion, must be not only defective, but absolutely inju-
rious ; and that, as regards the bulk of mankind, the
adoption of those doctrines, whatsoever they be, which
are recommended by parental example or national
authority, is more conducive to practical morality^
than that undue exercise of private judgment which
would impel each individual to form a religion for
himself. Equally would he uphold, to a rational
degree, tiiie duty of civil obedience, as inseparable
from the Christian character and indispensable to the
general welfare. Rejecting, on the one hand, the
pernicious maxim that man is hopelessly subjected,
by divine compulsion, to the caprices and abuses of
absolute power, merely because it exists ; he will dis-
.courage, on the other, as not less injurious to public
and private happiness, that turbulence of spirit which
makes every man a politidian, and impels the trader
118 AUSTRIA. [CH.
and artisan to neglect the orderly pursuits of iiis
callings on which his family depend for their daily
nupport* Thus £3Lr, he may yield a qualified assent
to the educational maxims of Rome : but the Romish
church demands from her votaries, in all these re*-
spectS) fiur more than can be wisely or safely conceded^
Retaining in a large degree the scholastic theology,
the casuistical philosophy^ and the legendary ab*-
surdities of the middle agi^, she is encUmb^ed by
that presumed inMlibility which prevents her erer
formally disavowing aught which has once beien io'*-
cautiously sanctioned ; and hence (without alluding
now to the soundness or the errors of her higher doc-
trines) every ignorant parochial assdstant or fimaticsd
friar may unrestrictedly propound to the youliifui
mind> as objects of saving faith, matters which am
repudiated by the wiser and betted members even of
his own communion. So long as this erroneous aad
dogmatical instruction retains its empire over the
raind^ a sort of passive and tranquil contentment, and
a tolerably regular performuice of the ordinary duties
of life, may be its probable result ; acootaipanied how^-
erer with considerable prostration of tiie reasoning
powerS) and great inequality of mord conduct : but,
if, perchance, this empire be shaken— if tiie facuily
of thought invade tiie dominion df belie^---^ fearfrd
tesult ensues* As essentials and non-essentials^
truth and £i.lsehood> have been enforced under am
equal sanction of unerring authority, the mind, un«*
trained to discriminate for itself, rejects the whole as
v.] EDUCATION. 119
imposture^ on detecting tha fallacy of a single errors
It finds no resting^plaoe between the extremes of
credulity and seeptieism; between the slavery of
abject submission and the licentiousness of repub*
liean equality:. The traveller who has intermixed
with the population in Spain and Portugal, and
southern Italy, wiU generally have observed, that wiio^
soever has ceased to be a devotee ha£ become an inn
fidel; and that, where the maxims of uninquiring
and unlimited submission have been rejected, they
have been succeeded by the dan£:erou8 theories of the
Turning next to France, we find a very diflSerent
system of instruction adopted ; and, as its result, a
very different stamp of moral and intellectual chara&*
ter. During the reign of Charles X., as well as par-*
tiaDy under that of his predecessor, attempts were
made to restore to the clergy that influence over edu-*
cation, of which they had been deprived by the cir-r
eumstanees of the revolution; and from these at^
tempts have arisen those teoles Chritiennes which
partially exist in some few departments, and
wherein, whatsoever be their merits or defects, reU*
gion, at all events, forms the basis of instruction*
These, however, are exceptional establishments. The
traditional accounts of the former domination and
corruption of the clergy, handed down with excessive
exaggeration through the periods of the republic and
tiie empire, have combined with the spirit of insubor-
dination produced by the revolution itself, in creating
120 AVSTRIA. [CH«
ai g^ieral repugnance to clerical controL The scaoH
tiness of those subsidiary pittances, whidi tiie state
allows to the ministers of religion, deprives them o(
social station among the higher members of the craof*
munity, by the example of whose respect the inferiors
might probably be swayed. It is possible, moreover,
that the eagerness of the French clergy to oppose the
excess of national infidelity, may have in too many
instances led them to the opposite extreme; and. that
their general adherence to the more objectionable doc^
trines of their southern brethren, may render it less a
matter of regret than it otherwise would have been,
that they are allowed no participation in the nati(»ial
education. Be this as it may, their endeavours have
been unavailing. The control of popular education
rests with the civil authorities, headed by the minister
of public instruction ; and deeply to be deplored it
is, that, generally and practically speaking, religious
and moral training forms scarcely any portion of it,
either in the public institutions or under the domes^
tic roof In the popular school, the gymnasium, and
the university, a sort of imperfect and superficial in*
struction on general literature is given, wluch suf**
fiees to encourage individual conceit, but tends nei^
ther to solidity of thought nor regularity of conduct.
Indulged from their earliest years in practical inde-»
pendence, the youth of France are ardent, heedless^
and impetuous — eager in the pursuit of every moment-^
ary gratification, regardless of results to themselves
or others. They are often brilliant in genius, and
v.] EDUCATION. 121
sdnethnes heroic in actiDn ; bnt> unsteadied by the
b^ast of xeligion, they are too often borne along by
weiy guat of ciqmce. and founder in the storm of
passion; France has long been, and probably will
long i^ttiain, a great and powerful nation ; but she is
certainly not die coimtry of Europe which the philo*
sopher wouM seleeti in his search for individual hap^
pinesB or for public or private morality.
• In Germany (I refer now to those of the German
states which are not embodied in the Austrian em-^
pire) we observe an educational syston, producing a
dev^opment of the intellectual faculties highly supe*
rior to that which exists in either France or southern
Europe. At the lower school, the gymnasium, and
the university, the instruction imparted is, in its vm*
ous degrees, solid and substantial ; tending to repress
frivolity and conceit, and to engender in the mind
habits of deep thought and patient investigation.
Hence the Germans are orderly in their outward con-
duct, and quietly amiable in their general demeanour ;
laborious beyond any people of Europe in their
literary and philosophical pursuits ; loving knowledge
for the enjoyment it affords ; and despising the cox-
combry of learned pretension. But the great error
of (jerman education is the allowance of too wide an
indulgence to the imagination, at that early period of
life when the judgment is not yet formed, and when
the imaginative tendencies require most to be re-
pressed. Tlie importance of religious tuition is not
denied, but, except in a small minority of the states^
123 AUSTRIA. [CH.
wheceiii, as in Bavaria, the schools are placed under
the control of the clei^» its inculcation is left to
parental discretion^ or, what is far more dangerous^
to the fancy of the puUic instructor. The professors
of the universitjr and the gymnasium, unchecked by
the pressure of control, and depending for their sup-
port on the number <^ their pl^>ils and the success of
their literary productions, find their best reward in
the promulgation of bold and striking novelties^ often
supported on the most profound thougk perverted
erudition, and recommended to the studadt with ail
the powers of dioquence. As the yoke ci autibority
is in Italy too heavy« so in Germany it is too light.
Tlie very principles of religion, ethics, and politics*
are brou^t into casuistical dispute ; while a deep
tone of impassioned feeling, an excessive ardour of
the imagination, combine with a distrust <tf received
opinions, in creatii^ that vtdldness and mysticism in
theology, philosophy, and the theories of civil govern-
ment, which, had they not been compressed by the
strong hand <^ power, would have often burst forth
in general convulsion.* It is not in Germany, as in
^ I am inclined to ascribe very much of the order and happiness
which prevail in Germany to the " sweet power of music." In
every class of society the taste for this soother of all mortal ills
is coltiviited with an enthusiasm peculiarly Grerman. £yery indi-
vidual plays on some instrument — every family forms a part of
some musical association, who meet at each others' houses (often
in the smaller towns on every evening of the week) to pass some
hours in social harmony. In the public garden, the guinguette,
and the saloon, music is the great attraction : it is the soul of
v.] EDUCATION. 123
Fnince^ an impatience of restraint, a thoughtless fri*
¥olity, or a selfish eagerness of personal gratification^
which impels to the breach of moral and social obli-
gation. It is a misdirection of the reascming facul-
ties; a predominance of sentiment above judgment;
a sincere, though most dangerous, enthusiasm, which
seeks no private ends, and acts only on what it wildly
but honestly beeves to be sanctioned by the order
of nature, or required for the good of mankind. To
control these eccentric tendencies of the national dia«-
racter, in so far, at any rate, as they bear on t^ivil
government) has been one main object of the Prus^-
sian monarch, in compelling one system of education
on his subjects, and prohibiting their access to sources
of foreign instruction ; but the Prussian system, while
it retains many of the moral defects observable in the
rest of Germany, has created others peculiar to itself.
It partakes too much of the military genius which
pervades every branch of Prussian administration.
The stern law of compulsion, which sends every
youth for six years to some specific school ordained by
the state, and, subsequently, at the age of eighteen,
tears him from his home to serve for three years in
the camp) may render him indeed, like the sons of
ancient Sparta, a child of the state ; but it too pro-
bably breaks asunder the bonds of domestic depend-
German life ; and I believe its influence to be most essentially
powerful in subduing that turbulence of feeling and action which
the course of German education and habit would naturally tend to
encourage.
124 AUSTRIA. [CH.
ence, witib all its train of duties and affections. The
course of ordinary civil occupation, and the acquisi-
tion of expertness in the mechamcai arts, are bus*
pended at that precise period when mental and mar
nual flexibility may be most successfully employed:
Military habits and feelings are engendered among
those, who are to gain their bread as labourers and
operatives. A school education, ill calculated for
the purposes of moral restraint, is followed by a mir
litary training, insufficient in duration to create use*
ful soldiers ; and, although a most sagacious govern-
ment has hitherto sustained public order and national
prosperity, it can hardly be doubted that the natural
tendency of the system is to divert the taste from the
tranquil pursuits of civil life, while it produces a no?
minal army, strong in nummcal force and beautiful
in parade evolutions, but ill adapted for the duties
and labour of actual warfare.
Austria has organized a system, essentially distinct
from either of those to which allusion has now been
made. Aiming at the gradual and peaceful ameliora-
tion of her internal condition^ the equalization of rights
before the law, and the general development of the
national resources, she views education in its larger
s^ise, as a mighty engine to mould the public mind ;
to cement it together in a bond of cordial union with
her existing institutions ; to excite and to regulate its
energies, so that it shall be neither a drag on the
y.^ EDUCATION. 125
state maehine by its ignorance and grossness, nor a
spur to unsafe speed by its crude theoretical fancies.
She strives at ihe creation of a happy, not a brilliant
people ; and hence she affords gratuitously to every
class, such instruction as shall be practically useful in
their reapeetke spheres of life, firmly withholding all
that may tend to merely imaginative speculation.
In carrying these views into effect, two leading
principles are adopted. The Jir^t is, that the state
shall alone direct the education of all its subjects, in
every grade of society. From the prince to the
peasant a course of instruction is afforded, in the
university, the classical gymnasium, the commercial
academy, and the primary village*school, which is
gratuitously open to all, and in each of which those
books alone are used, and those opinions alone pro*
pounded, which the state has specifically authorized.
Private tuition, whether under the dcnnestic roof or
in licensed institutions, as well as that imparted in
the theological seminaries and the specially endowed
establishments, is equally controlled by the crown,
and subjected to the supervision of its functionaries :
and those only who have been educated within the
realm y are competent to hold any office, to exercise
any calling, or even to be employed in the operative
labours of manual trades. The second prindple is the
connexion of all education with religion. With tlKise
wise and tolerant views which have been explained
in the last chapter, an equality of protection and of pri-
vilege is accorded to the Hebrew and the Protestant,
126 AUSTRIA. [CH.
the Greek and the Romanist. No attempt at prose*
lytism can be practised ; but every pupil is compelled
to receive religious instruction from the authorized
minister of the profession in which he is registered,
and the testimonials of that religious instruction are
necessary for every step of his future progress in
life. Thus to a certain degree has Austria adopted
the '* universality*' ol the Prussian system ; but with
this most important distinction, theA, while sbe offers
education to all, she compels it upon none. She
uses every exhortation and inducement to urge on
parents the acceptance of the boon she holds forth ;
but she allows no interference with that domestic
authority, no tampering with those reciprocal affeo
tions, which mould the genius of all her institutionsi
and form the strength of the throne itself. To a
certain degree also, she adopts the ^* authority" of
the Roman school ; but with this most essential dif*
ference likewise, that she deprives authority itself
both of its exclusiveness and its superstition. While
she makes religion the basis of all education, she so
extends that basis, as to comprehend the dogmas of
every recognised persuasion ; and, while she commits
the charge of supervision to the clergy, she sternly
compels that clergy, whatsoever be the creed they
profess, to the inculcation of those truths and doc<»
trines, and those only, which may have been specie
fically put forth by their respective ruling consist^
ories, and be^n sanctioned by the supreme authority
of the state.
v.] EDUCATION. 127
It is Hour necessaty to explain the details of that
organization, the outline of which has been already
sketched.
At the head of the department, is the Hof-Studien*
Commission at Vienna ; a eoundl of education, com-
posed of laymen appointed by the crown, who hold
themselves in communication with the consistories of
the Bomish, Protestant, Greek, and Hebrew com*
munions, and generally supervise the education of the
empire. They are a deliberative, and in some d^ee
an executive, but in no wise a legislative body.
Their functions extend to the inveistigation of all
matters of complaint connected with educational
institutions, not within the cognizance of legal tri^
bunals ; the suggestion and preparation of all plans of
educational improvement ; and the authorization of a
variety of acts, for which, by royal ordinance, their
licence or direction is required. They are the
referees and the counsellors of the crown, on every
point connected with instruction in all its branches,
theological and civil, military and industrial ; but so
little are they intrusted with original authority, that
even an alteration of the fixed hours of instruction,
or the substitution of one grammar for another in a
school, is made the matter of a special imperial edict.
Under this central council, a graduated system of
superintendence is organized, to be exercised jointly
by the spiritual and the civil authorities. The
scholastic establishments of every class within the
diocese are subjected to the bishop and his con-
128 AUSTRIA. [CH^
sistoryi jointly with the landesatelle ; — ^those of the
district to a clerical overseer^ who is not unfreqaently
the kreis-dechant (or archdeacon),* jointly with the
kreisampt ; — those of the parish to the parochial in-
cumbent, jointly with a civil commissary whom the
kreisampt appoints : hut, in order that this general
arrangement, which is made with a view to the great
bulk of the population who profess the religion of
Rome, may not interfere with the consciences of
those holding different creeds, the Protestant super-
intendents, seniors, and pastors, (the nature of whose
avocations has been explained in a former chapter,)
the Greek prelates and their subordinates, and the
authorized Hebrew rabbis, are substituted for the
Romish spiritual functionaries, in their respective
degrees, for all that regards the members of their
several communions.
There are six classes of schools subjected to the
superintendence of the education-board; namely,
the popular, the gynmasial, the philosophical, the
medico-chirurgical, the juridical, and the theological.
The four last of these, form separately the objects of
various special institutions ; and, combined together,
they constitute the four faculties of the universities.
* It might be more coirect to render the term kreis-dechant by
that of rurcU dean^ were it not that in England the rural dean
haa no legal powers ; those which were anciently attached to his
office haying, according to the assertion of Blackstone, long since
merged in the archdeacon and the chancellor. The kreia-decfaant
has that authority which was vested in the rural dean at an earlier
period of our history.
v.] EDlJCATiON. 129
The gymnasium is the school for classical learning,
mathematics, and elementary philosophy; and the
popular schools comprehend the establishments of
various degrees, in which instruction is imparted of
a more practical character, to those whose station in
life does not fit them for the study of the learned
languages. The lowest of these are the volks-^sohulen^
or, as they are often termed, the trimal or the German
schools, established or intended to be established in
every district or parish of town or country, for the
primary instruction of the lowest orders, in religion
and morality, reading, writing, and accounts. In the
larger places are also numerous upper schoohy haupt*
scbulen, wherein a somewhat more extended educa-
tion is given, for persons designed for the mechanical
arts and other similar pursuits. These have an
upper class who receive instruction in drawipg,
elementary geometry, and geography, and with it is
combined a normal school for teachers in the volks-
schulen. In the larger towns are also commercial
academies, termed real scbulen, in ^ich are com-
prised two divisions of scholars : the one general,
receiving instruction in accounts, geography, and
history ; the other special, having, in addition thereto,
teachers in book-keeping and the principles of trade
for mercantile pupils, in natural history and rural
economy for those intended for agricultural life, in
mathematics^ chemistry, and principles of art ^for
students in the higher arts, and in various foreign
languages, especially English, French, and Italian,
VOL. II. K
130 AUSTRIA. [CH.
for those who oaay desire to receive such instructioii.
In the volksschulen girls are taught, except in rare
instances, in separate rooms from the boys ; and for
the superior instruction of females there are distinct
establishments corresponding with the haupt'scbulen
and real-schulen of ^e boys, many of them managed
and directed by certain communities of nuns, which
are especially preserved for the purposes of education.
Industrial schools of various kinds, and for both
sexes, are also in some parts combined with these
more general educational institutions; but the ex*-
penses attending such establishments prevent their
being very numerous.
The establishments thus last described constitute
the class of popular schools. The next above these
are the gymnasial ; of which there are one, or two,
or several, in each district, according to the extent
of its population. The pupils of the gymnasium are
divided into several classes: the earlier ones are
taught in religion, moral philosc^hy, elementary ma-
th^natics and physics, and Latin philology. To
these subjects are added, for the more advanced
classes — ^partly as perfect courses at the gymnasium,
and pardy as introductory to the higher instruction
in the same branches at the lyceum or university —
general history (and especially that of Austria), clas-
sical literature, Greek philology, aesthetics (namely,
rhetoric, poetry, and a knowledge of the fine arts),
and the history of philosophy. Above the gymna^
slum are the. eight universities of Prague, Vienna,
v.] EDUCATION. 131
Padua, Pavia^ Lemberg, Chratz, Olmutz, and Ins-
pruek ; to which must be. added the Hungarian uni«-
versity of Pesth. These are divided into two wders
— ^those of Prague, Vienna, Padua, Pavia, and Pesth,
are of the first, having chairs for all the four faculties
of theology, law, medicine, and philosophy ; the others
have a smaller number-^as, for instance, Oratz,
which has but three, having no professorship of me-
dicine, and Lemberg, which has only two. In fur-
ther addition, according to circumstances and locali-
ties, professorships are established, either at the
gymnasium, the lycseum, or the university, in the
Italian and Oriental languages, in theoretical agri-
culture, astronomy, chemistry, mechanics, and other
branches of practical science. In most of the pro-
vincial capitals, where no university exists (in such
towns, for instance, as linz, Laybach, Klagenfurt,
&c.) , there is an institution, under the name LyciBum^
which answers the purpose of a minor university ;
wherein public courses of lectures are given in some
or all of the four faculties, and in other branches of
knowledge. The degree cannot, indeed, be taken at
the lycaeum in any of the faculties : but certificates
may be there obtained, which ai*e accepted in lieu of
those of the universities for a large number of cases
where certificates are required : and, for youths who
require them not, the education of the lycceum, ex-
tending as it does to the highest Greek and Latin
classics and natural philosophy, answers every pur-
pose of general education. Of these lycseums there
k2
132 AUSTRIA. [CH.
are, in the empire, twenty-^hree under Roman Catho-
lic direction ; besides eleven Protestant, Lutheran or
Calvinist, and one Unitarian. For the instruction of
the Hebrew subjects there are gymnasiums and other
schools, wherein the same books are read as in the
general establishments of the empire, except only that
works of Jewish, are substituted for those of Chris-
tian, theology. In special branches of knowledge
the government establishments are very numerous :
medical and surgical academies, clerical academies,
polytechnic schools, military institutions in all
branches, and a college for the Eastern languages,
&c. &c.
The whole of these establishments are organized
with a view to their strict uniformity of system, and
to their connexion with some one or more of the
religious professions recognised by the state. The
popular schools are inspected and directed by the pa-
rochial incumbent, who, with a view to this duty, is
bound to receive instruction, previous to his induction
to a benefice, in the system of scholastic management,
or, as it is termed in the language of the edicts, the
science of padagogt/. He is required, at least
twice in every week, at certain fixed hours, to ex-
amine and catechise the pupils, and to impart to them
religious instruction; the parish or district being
obliged to provide him with a carriage for that pur-
pose, when the schools to be visited are distant from
his residence. He orders removals from lower to
higher classes, and grants those certificates, without
v.] EDUCATION. 133
which no pupl can pass from the popular school to
the gymnasium. He is bound to render, periodi-
cally, statistical and discriminating returns on the
state of the schools, both to his spiritual superior and
to the kreisampt ; to urge on parents the great im-
portance of education to their offspring; and to
supply books to those who cannot afford to purchase
them, and clothes (so far as the poor-fund or private
contributions may enable him to do so) to such as,
for want of clothing, are prevented attending the
schools. Where children of different creeds are in-
termixed in one school, religious instruction and
catechization is confined to the last hour of the
morning and afternoon attendance, during which
hour the non-Romanists are dismissed to receive
instruction elswhere from their respective pastors;
but where the number of non-Romanists is su£Gi-
ciently great to support a separate school, the mi-
nister of that persuasion, whatever it be, is charged
exclusively with the same duties as, in the general
schools, are imposed on the parish priest. To mi-
nisters of all professions an equal recourse is, by the
terms of the ordinances, allowed to the aid of the
poor-fund and of the grants from the kreisampt. If
the schools be too distant or too numerous for the
proper supervision of the local minister, a separate
instructor is named by the bishop ; or, if the school
be Protestant, by the provincial superintendent;
and, for the visitors of all denominations, the ex-
134 AUSTRIA. [CH.
pense of a carriage* k e^pially borne by the puUic.
Except in die points above enumerated, the parochial
minister has no power to act, but only to report : in
all those connected with defects or deficienoies of
the buildings, he, in conjunction with the civil com-
missary, reports to the kreisampt ; and in those of
merely scholastic nature, as well as in the conduct
of the teachers, he addresses his remarks to the in-
spector of the district.
The teachers at all the popular schools are requiited
to produce testimonials from the normal scliool at
which they have been instructed, and receive their
appointment from die diocesan consistory, or from
the provincial chief of any special religions for which
they may be intended, bui require in all cases the
confirmation of the landesstelle. They are provided
with residences attached to the schools, together
with fixed stipends during good health and good
conduct, and are allowed superannuation pensions,
which, if they shall have served for a period of ten
yeare, are extended to their widows, and to their
orphans : under fourteen years of age.
Each district has an uufieer^ or inspector (named
by the bishop from among the parochial clergy hold*
ing benefices therein), who compiles detailed states
ments on every point connected with education, for
♦ This may appear a trifling observation, but it exemplifies the
footing of equality on which the members of different religious
professions are placed by law.
v.] EDUCATION. 133
his spiritual superior, and for the kr^isampt. Once
a year he makes a tour of personal inspectioi^ ex-*
amines the pupils, distributes rewards to the best
scholars, and supervises alike both the ministry and
the teachers; most especially enforcing the rule»
that those books only shall be used, and those iQ-*
struetions only be given, which have been commanded
by imperial edict. Above these district-inspectorsj
each diocese has a higher officer, under the name of
oberaufseer^ or inspector-general, who is named by
the crown, and is in most cases a member of the
cathedral chapter. His supervision extends not to
the volkS'SchuUn only, but also to the real and the
haupt^chulen ; and for these purposes he is thf
districi-inspector for the city of his residence, and
the inspector- general for the whole diocese. He is
the official referee, whose opinion the consistory are
bound to demand in every exercise of their educa*
tional functions, and by whom they are in fact prin-
cipally guided; since every matter wherein their
sentiments may not agree with his, must be referred
to the decision of the landesstelle. He examines and
certifies teachers for appointment by the consistory ;
receives quarterly statements in all details from his
subordinate inspectors, and embodies them into ge-^
neral reports for the landesstelle and the crown;
finally, as supervisor of spiritual instruction, he
examines candidates for orders, and novices for
monastic vows, and grants certain testimonials of
proficiency which are indispensable for their admis-*
136 AUaTRIA. [CH.
sion. To the episcopal eannstories, headed by the
bishop, is committed the general supervision of all
the scholastic concerns of the diocese, the regulations
of matters of discipline, the ccmimunication ijf in-
struction, and the investigation of delinquencies. It
is a part of their functions to order the erection of
schools, to appoint the teachers, to authorise the pay^
ment of pensicms to teachers in sickness or in age,
and to their widows and orphans, when entitled
to them ; but in these points, as in all others whidi
involve any exercise of real authority, patronage, or
influence, their acts are invalid without the confirm-*
ation of the landesstelle. For the professors of non-
Romanist creeds these respective functions are dis-
charged in their several gradations by officers of their
own persuasion. The Protestant seniors and super-^
intendents are the district-inspectors and the pro*
vincial inspectors-general for their respective conn
munities; and the functions of the diocesan con-
sistories are transferred to the central Calvinistic and
Lutheran consistories at Vienna.
The schools of higher degree, the Gymnasium,
the Lycaeum, the theological seminary, and the Uni-
versity, ai*e all, as well as the popular schools, more
or less subjected to the supervision of the diocesan
and his consiatory ; but these depend more immedi-
ately on the educational board at Vienna. Over
each of them presides a director, who is charged with
the general management, in point both of discipline and
instruction, acting under the orders of the boai'd, or
v.] edih:;a«on. 13T
the ^qta of ,the epperor. The various professors
andte^heraareall either named or approved by the
jUuadesstelle, or the educational board ; the same dis*
criminating {irecautions being adopted as at the po*
polar, sdiool^, for the. religious instruction of those
who profess non-Romish creeds. In every station^
and; 'Wi the various branches of education, the pupils
are subjected to half-yearly examinations by autho-
rise visitors ; and, from the result of these examina'p
tions, as well as from the testimonials which each is
bound to produce as to moral conduct, and also as t9
religious knowledge from the minister of his commu-
nion» the director forms the reports which are fur-
nished to the government
Of the expenses attendant on the department of
public education in all its degrees, it is not easy to
form an estimate, on account of the variety of sources
from which they are defrayed. The " religious fond"
has been already mentioned as that from whence the
professors at the higher schools are mainly sup-
ported; and it is known that the charges on it for
the eight universities are about 55,000/. sterling
annually — but, in addition to the grants from the re-
Jigious fond, payments are made also from the epis-
copal chest ; and many teachers as well as pupils at
the University, the Lyceemn, and the Gymnasiiim,
receive the benefit of specific endowments. There
is, besides, a fund in every province termed the ''stu-
dien or education Jund," arising from the appropria-
tion to.it, of numerous endowments for specific foun-
138 AUSTRIA. [CH.
dations which, in common with the manasteries, were
'* regalated " by Joseph II. The edncatioiial, like
the religious fund, is properly applicable to the wants
of the province in which it exists — and its adnuni-
stration is confided to the landessteOe— but as the
local wants are insufficiently supplied firom these re*
gular sources, even with the addition of private con-
tributions, it generally occurs that an excess of ex-
penditure is covered by what is termed a loan horn
the exchequer to tiie fund of education, whereof the
repayment is a matter of very dubious c<mtingency.
For the erection of popular schools, certain rules are
laid down which ensure their erection as occasion
may require. Although no ordinances compel edu-
cation, yet the inducements held out to desire it are
so gre^t, that for schools of this description there is
a constantly increasing demand, partly arising firom
the people themselves, and partly instigated by the
spiritual and civil authorities ; and, indeed, so urgent
have of late years been applications to this effect,
that it has become a usual, although not universal
practice, to require of the parishioners, or the inha-
bitants of the district petitioning, that they shall
bind themselves by voluntary assessment to bear the
whole or a portion of the attendant expenses. Afiter
the locality has been fixed by the aufseer and the
kreisampt, it depends on the landesstelle to issue the
decree that the school be built ; and, this being done,
the law then provides for its gratuitous erection and
completion. The lord of the soil is bound to grant
v.] EDUCATION. 139
the land and the materials ; the inhabitants of the
district to supply the labour ; and the patron of the
parochial benefice^ the internal fittings-up ; all sub-
sequent repairs, as well as the hiring of buildings for
temporary accommodation, being a charge on these
three parties jointly. On large feudal domains, the
lord of the soil being also probably the proprietor of
the township or village, and perhaps the patron of
the parish, he usually erects and supports the schools
at his own expense: but these are, equally with
every other, under the general laws of super-
vision and instruction ; although it is obvious that
in such cases the management of the schools, as
well as the attendance of pupils, must mainly de-
pend on the character and conduct of the feudal
agents.
Notwithstanding, however, these ample provisions
for general education, it will be readily conceived,
that in a country where certain classes possess large
pecuniary means, and high aristocratic feelings, in-
struction cannot be absolutely confined to public in-
stitutions. In Vienna and other cities many acade-
mic establishments of a superior order exist, endowed
in the manner of our public schools ; and in these,
or in the schools of the monasteries before mentioned,
wherein boarders are permitted to be received, or^
finally, under private tutors in their own families, a
large portion of the higher classes receive their edu-
cation. All the instructors, whether purely domestic
or employed in the schools, must have the govern-
140 AUSTRIA. [CH.
ment authorization to teach ; * and some few en-
dowed schools haye spedal visitors, whose certificates
answer the purpose, as the case may be, of those granted
by the German schools, the upper sdiools, or the gym-
nasiums ; but no youth can enter the gynmasium or
university from domestic tuition,, without also under-
going a previous special examination. It is not very
usual for the heirs of the highest families to go to
the universities at all. Younger sons frequently do
so, although many enter themselves for mere forma-
lity, and do not attend lectures; but in such case
they can obtain no certificates, and are consequently
debarred from all offices in the civil government
Neither dj:e private academies wholly excluded: but
they have been always objects of royal disfavour ;
and so lately as in the year 1834, an ordinance was
issued, enforcing and extending the severe regula-
tions under which alone they are permitted to exist.
Those in which gymnasial instruction, or, in other
words, classics and mathematics are taught, may be
established only in the capital city of each province;
and with the licence of the landesstelle, to whom the
head-master must produce the regularly prescribed
* The canons of the church of England, passed in the reign of
James 1., contain an enactment, that ^^ no man shall teach either
in public school or private house, but such as shall be allowed hf
the bishop of the diocese or ordinary of the place, under his hand
and seal." Although these canons, never having been sanctioned
by parliament, have no legal force on the laity, still they exhibit the
views of the great body by whom they were framed, and of the
sovereign by whom they were promulgated.
v.] EDUCATION. 141
testimonials as to literary acquirraients, the science
of psedagogy, and moral conduct. The plan and re-
gulations of the school^ reduced to writing, and from
which no deviation can be afterwards made, must be
approved by the civil authorities : (he church or churches
specified which the pupils shall attend, and in which
it is especially enjoined that at a proper age they
periodically receive the holy sacrament : and the in-
struction must be in every point conformable to that
of the gymnasium, divided into similar courses, and
subject to similar examinations by authorised public
functionaries. So connected indeed are these pri-
vate academies with the general system of public
education, that monthly and quarterly returns of the
name, the age, and the conduct of every pupil are
made to the prefect of the gymnasium ; to whom also
are remitted the certificates of proficiency, signed by
the public inspectors at the half-yearly examinations.
To the reign of the late Emperor Francis belongs
the principal organization of the existing system, the
foundations of which were laid in the earliest years of
his reign (perhaps partially in that of his prede-
cessor), and the superstructure raised and moulded
by a great variety of subsequent edicts. Its progress
has encountered difficulties in various quarters. In
Hungary it is opposed, avowedly on principle, by a
most influential section of the liberal party in the
diet, who fear that popular education would be a
source of danger to property, if unaccompanied with
a greater extension of civil rights — which, however.
142 AUSTRIA. [CH.
they themselves have hitherto felt it inexpedient to
accord. In Gallicia> both the lords and the pea*
sants retain too much of the Polish character, to
regard with any degree of complacency that exten-
sion of instruction, of which they have never been
taught to estimate the value ; and on the feudal pro-
perties even of Moravia and Bohemia, if the lords are
needy and careless, it is not always easy to urge on them
and their agents the expediency of erecting schools, to
the expenses of which they must themselves be the
main contributors. To surmount these various
obstacles, whether arising from indifference in the
lower classes or repugnance in the higher, the go-
vernment adopts, as usual, a gradual and cautious, but
most persevering policy ; often yielding for a time, but
generally triumphant in the end. Abstaining from
absolute compulsion, the main inducement it holds out
for all classes to accept the boon of instruction, is its
general enactment, that, without certificates of ade-
quate education proportionate to his station, no one
may exercise a trade, or be received as a common
workman:* no one can be employed by the state; or
can even enter the bands of matrimony— a species of
penalty apparently of very doubtful morality, but
which, in fact, like all sweeping enactments of the
same character, must, in the nature of things, be inca-
pable of strict enforcement. The enactment operates
* The proprietor of one of the largest manufactories in Bohe-
mia told me he had been subjected to a fine for employing a
workman not provided with the requisite certificates of education.
v.] EDUCATION. 143
perhaps in the feudal provinces, less on the bulk of the
people^ than on the wealthy hut reluctant landlords ;
as the former receive^ where no schools exist, a sort of
dispensing certificate from the parochial minister, who
is at all events hound to impart religious instruction ;
while the manorial lord, besides being ultimately com-
pelled to yield the point, is, in the interim, generally
obliged in practice, to the support of that pauper
population, whom he will not consent to educate.
Thus every year witnesses a decided progress ; and
so far has the sjrstem already succeeded, that, with
the exception of Hungary, whence no returns are
made, and where education is very loosely and in*
adequately attended to, above three-fifths of the juve^
nile population of the empire do actually receive
scholastic instruction. According to official reports,
there are in Transylvania, 53,698 children attending
school, out of 64,227 capable of doing so: in the
Military Frontier, only 60,878 out of 1»4,778 ; and
in the entire residue of the empire, German and
Italian, but always exclusive of Hungary, 1,536,104
out of 2,529,171. It appears, moreover, that, cm
the whole, a larger portion of boys go to school than
of girls, as may be seen from the following analysis
of the two last numbers given above, viz. : —
In the whole empire, exclusive of Hungary,
Transylvania and the military frontier —
Capable of going to school • males, 1,307,777
„ „ „ females, 1,221,394
2,529,171
144 AOtSTRIA. [CU.
Actually goings to sdiod males, 8T4,7M
ff v« f, fenalcSy 661,384
1^96,104
It has been stated, that although the ooiirse of
education is mainly gratuitous, yet a small sum,
amounting to 12 florins at the gymnasium, and from
18 to 30 florins at the universities, is paid by ail
who have not certificates of poverty, towards a fund
for the grant oi stipends to poor istudents ; and Ais
system of poor Hudents is so remarkable a feature in
the general education of Germany, tiiat I shall ven-*^
ture on a short digression from the immediate object
of the Austrian system, in order to offer a few re-
marks on its peculiar character and bearings. In
our sizars and commoners of Cambridge and Oxford,
we have a class of youths something similar to them
in general position ; but with us they are confined to
particular colleges, and, as regards the general body,
are small and uninfluential in number. In the older
univtfsities of Germany, on the contrary, (for the
case is different with those of more recent origin,)
they form a large proportion ; and at Jena are actu«
ally two-thirds of the entire number of pupils. TIio
endowments of which they have the benefit, origi-»
nating partly in the munificexice of sovereigns pre*
lates and feudal^ lords, and partly in the charitable
bequests and donations of private individuals, vary
much in amount, and likewise in their mode of ap-
plication. In some cases, the admissions are con-
v.] EDUCATION. 145
fined to individubls born in ;a > particular town or
district, and in others they require^ in a certain
proportion, the application to some particular course
of studies, clerical, legal, or medical. In some places
the students are lodged in common halls, and eat at
common tables termed eonvieten (eonvicttui) ; while
in others^ the aggregate receipts of the endowments
form a fund, firom which each recipient has a fixed
monthly stipeiid*
In tlus, as in the majority of human institutions,
we may, trace considerable good and evil intermixed ;
and it will be a matter of diverse opinion, which of
the two preponderates. On the one hand it must be
gratifying to the feelings of the philanthropist, that
education of the highest order which the state aflfords,
is open alike to the humble and the great — ^that the
son of the poorest parents, on receiving the certi-
fi4;ate of poverty and morality from the minister of
the parish, and perhaps the civil superintendent of
the district, may, in so far as the funds of each en-
dowment will extend^ be freely boarded and lodged,
while he participates in the general instruction. On
the other, experience has shown that, as regards this
system in the universities (for the effect is less
striking at the gymnasiums), the good is by no
means unalloyed by evil ; perhaps, in some respects,
overborne by it. The professors of German univer-
sities out of Austria, receiving generally very small
fixed allowances, or possibly none at all, derive their
principal income from the pupils who attend their
VOL. II. L
146 AUSTRIA. [CB.
I %^ J ;
prwate lectores. In proportkm as the pooi
aboimd, these private papils will be rife ; and in ibe
same ratio will the general diaracter of tbe edncar
tion be inferior. In all of the uniTersities waie pro-
fessors of the highest order of talent and aoqniiement
may be found : but these eminent men depend rather
on profits derived finom the books they publish, than
firom the personal instruction they impart; and even
this instruction they divide into three dasaes instead
of two, the public, the private, and the very private
(leetinmes pubUea, privata, et privatusimai) ; which
last, attended by few pupils, are far more daborate
and proportionably more profitable than tiie others.
As the absence of international differences enables
the professors to remove from one university to
another (excepting always those of Prussia and
Austria) with entire facility, it is a natural conse-
quence that the greatest talent should resort to those
places, where it has the prospect of being best re*
quited ; while the communities abounding *' in poor
students'' are left to an inferior grade of instruction,
and are too apt to acquire that low and restless tone
of general character, combined with factious political
spirit, which has been generally represented as exist-
ing at the German universities. However sentiments
may dijQfer as to the advantage or disadvantage of
hereditary station or accumulated wealth, it will
hardly be denied, that those who have the greatest
stake in any existing order of things, are the least
likely to attempt its subversion ; and also^ that
v.] EWICATION 147
•
where alterations and innovations are required, it is
Mt to the rash theoretical judgment of college youth
tiiat sueh should be confided. My own opuuon of
the German students is &r BKure favourable than
that which many writers have expressed. I believe
them, generally, to be hardwoiking and persevering
in their pursuit of knowledge. If their evenings are
^vea sometimes to those inelegant indulgences in
beer and tobacco, which justly shock the more refined
tastes of English gentlemen, it must be remembered
that the whole of the day has been a period of ab-
stinence^ temperance, and labour ; that from its dawn
to its close they have been engaged in a perpetual
seriea of studies, taking a cup of ooffee and a roll of
bread f<ur their morning meal, and at noon> or one
o'clock, sparing a few minutes only for a very slight
dinner, if dinner it can be called, with water only for
their beverage. That very exaltation of character
which has led to the most dangerous political crimes^
and has not scrupled at murder itself as a means of
&ncied public regeneration,, has been founded on
exaggerated views of Roman and Spartan virtue,
rather than on the theories of modem philosophists.
It has been so accompanied, too, with a moral self-
conunand, a sort of heroic control over the frailer
feelings and propensities of our nature, a total (fege-
neration of self and selfishness, as almost to excite
our sympathy for the individual, while we stand
aghast at the atrocious character of his daring;
and further, whatever may have been the wild theo-
l2
148 AUSTRIA. [CH.
ries of the student, we observe him, at the dose
of his academic career, generally idling into the
common pursuits of life, with the usual order and
regularity of his nation. Still, truth requires the ad-
mission, that a dangerous spirit of mysticism in
politics and religion, a habit of self-judgment defy-
ing authority and precedent, a contempt of established
rule, and an assumption of coarse noisy and arrogant
demeanour, prevail at most of the German universi-
ties out of Austria, to a greater or less extent ; and
wherever the proportion of poor students is the
largest, there may these defects be said to be the most
observable.
Reverting now to our more immediate sulject, we
find in Austria an extreme desire on tiie part of the
government for the education of the poor ; but an
education conducted on such principles, as to create
contentment and well-being in their actual condition,
and to discourage a restless aspiring desire to ori-
ginate alterations. Hence there is an evident indis-
position to favour the poor student system as it exists
elsewhere in Germany. When Joseph II. reformed
the monastic establishments, be swept away also
many of those endowments of collegiate bodies, which
were intended solely for the benefit of poor students ;
pouring their revenues, in common with those of the
suppressed religious houses, into either the " reli-
gious" or the "educational fiind." Where charity
had been the motive of the endowment, and mere
poverty the qualification, be may have argued that it
v.] EDUCATION. 149
was no undue interference with the intentions of the
founders, thus to extend or to regulate the sphere of
application; but those foundaticms and endowments
wherein the bequests were more specific, or admis-
sion to the benefit of the funds rested at all events
on some other qualification superadded to poverty, or
aJtogether independent of : it, he preserved inviolate
as they now exist. Of this description, there are
colleges for students in theology, wherein the pupils,
nominated by the crown, the local government, the
prelate of the diocese, &c. are boarded add lodged
gratuitously, while they attend the courses of the
gymnasium and the university. There are numerous
private endowments under the administration of
trustees, from which, as is so frequently with us,
'^ founders' kin," or persons bom in particular places,
receive annual stipends. There is a college at
Prague for the gratuitous boarding and lodging of
between, forty and fifty students, selected by their
merit on public examination, from candidates ap-
pointed by the Stande (the provincial parliament) of
Bohemia ; and another at Vienna, for youths, part of
whom are placed therein on private foundation scho-
larships, and part are selected for merit on examina-
tion:; by oflSicers of the crown. It is not that in these
institutions, or in the grants of stipends at the uni-
versities, the appeal of poverty is disregarded ; but
the. distinction between the system of Austria and
that of the generality of Germany consists mainly in
this-T-that in the Austrian establishments certificates
150 AUnRlA. [CH.
of poverty and motility do not suffice «foiie. The
preeentations in Ihe gift bf paMk bodies or private
individuals are valid only when the object of them
produces adequate testimonials ; and lliose which be^
long to the crown are usually granted to the most
deserving among candidates publicly examined. The
same prindple regulates the application of the fund>
foimed by annual contributions from all the students
not themselves provided with poverty certificates, in
the uuiversitieB and gymnasiums* The rtipeads from
it are paid indeed to the poor scholars ; but in order
to obtain them> the candidates possessed of certificates
of poverty must submit to a special examination> and
the benefit of the fond is then awarded amongst
them according to superior merit. The predse pro*
portion of these stipendiaries can hardly be ascer-
tained withcmt a personal investigation at each esta^
blisfament, owing to the hafait> loosely admitted in the
offidai returns, of sometimes uniting together tiie
universities with their subordinate gymnasiums
wherdn stipends are also accorded, and sometimes of
confining the returns to the universities alone : but
the aggregate number is far from great At Vienna
there are 274, where the under graduates at the uni-
versities amount to nearly 2000 ; and at Prague 62,
where the under graduates are 1700. There are 26
stipendiaries only reported at Favia, 33 at limberg,
81 atGratz,45 at Innopuck, and 112 at Olmutz,
none at Padua, and it may be added 30 at the Pro-
testant institution in Vienna, wl»re the whole number
Y.] EDUCATION. 151
(^ pupik is only 49. Thus, exdurive of Pesth
whence there are no returns^ and of the Protestant
college^ six hundred and forty appears to be the entire
number of stipendiary pupils.'*'
Such is the machinery of this grand educational
system ; the philosophy of which aims at the fusion of
the rulers with the ruled, into a general harmony of
sentiment and affections^-^the formation of an orderly
contented, and happy people. The universities exhibit
a striking contrast with those of the rest of Germany.
In them are no drunken brawls ; — scarcely any duels ; —
no troops of students sta-aggling six abreast through
the streets with lengthy pipes in their mouths, and
fumes of beer in their heads ;-— no popidar professor
descending at midnight to the street, humbly to thank
the spirited youths for the compliment of their noisy
serenade. The academic discipline was formerly
intrusted to a Senatus Academicus; but this has
* An official return states 45,398 fl. as the aggregate amount
of the stipendiary fund in the eight universities ; but, without
doubting the accuracy of the figures, I have not confidence in it
as a statement of fact. Taking the average amount of pay-
ments at 20 florins, we should infer from it, that the eight univer-
sities contained only 2269 pupils not fiirnished with poverty cer-
tificates. This is absurd. The attempt at over-accuracy in
statistical returns continually defeats itself; and my impression
is, that in the very numerous and complicated retiurus made to
the Austrian government, the same expressions are sometimes
used with such discordance of signification, as to lead to results
very remote from fact.
1 52 AUSTRIA. [CH.
long since eeased to be the case, save as regards in-
firactions of mere college rule, for the oogoizaoce of
which the professors still meet and inflict punishment ;
but in all that respects public order, the students, Hkie
every other person, are subjected to the general con-
trol of the imperial police. So^ie years ance, a slight
attempt was made to introduce the Burschenschaft
Society among the youths of Prague, but it was at
once put down. Those suspected of being implicated
were, if foreigners (as most of them were), sent im-
mediately beyond the frontier. The native pupils
were merely admonished, and imprisoned for a fort-
night; and no attempt to establish secret societies
has, . as is believed, ever since been made. The
teachers are under as dose a supervision as the pupils.
An emiiiept professor at Prague, gave, not long since,
an exphmation of a passage in scripture which was
not deemed perfectly orthodox, and he was thereupon
summarily dismissed ; and, about the same period, one
at Vienna met a similar fate. Up to these highest
academies, from the lowest popular schools^ the whole
is a connected gradation of classes. The pupils in
each are subjected to half-yearly examination, and are
removed to higher classes or to higher schools, ac-
cording to the testimonials of the examiners, and the
discretion of the director. The parochial ministers,
alone can authorize the advance from the popular
school to the gymnasium; the gymnasial director,
that from the gymnasium to the university ; and, with-
out testimonials from these establishments respectively^
v.] EDUCATION. 153
according to the degree of instruction required, no
one can be employed in the civil service of the state,
or of any municipal body. The books themselves, as
well as the teaehers by whom they are expounded,
being all under the direction and control of the go-
vernment, an essential uniformity of character is pro-
duced ; since education can never differ in quality, but
only in extent. Whether it attain its Mghest range
in the universities or be confined to the village
schools, whether it be public or domestic, clerical or
lay; obtained in a monastery, the polytechnic school,
or the military academy, the same principles of order,
contentment, and submission to authority in church
and state, are everywhere instilled ; and as that au-
thority is lenientiy and paternally exerted, these prin-
ciples, thus early implanted, are rarely afterwards
disturbed. Even variation of religion creates, in this
respect, no variation of feeling. The same instruction
is given in Protestant as in Catholic seminaries, ex-
cepting only in matters of religion ; and on these,
no books may contain hostile remarks on the tenets
of any other sect, and no controversial discussion or
lectures are permitted in the pulpit or the schools.
On the intellectual faculties, the effect of the whole
system,— -the continuance for fixed periods at fixed
studies, — ^and tiie perusal of the same books, under all
varieties of circumstances, must necessarily be of an
equalizing, not an exciting character. In proscribing
the wild vagaries so often encouraged in other states,
it may tend not unfrequently to cramp the force of
154 AUSTBIA. [CH*
genius into a iort of stunted unifennily : but this is
not inccmsistent with tbe genius ofaphilosopliy^whidi
aims at training the child for eontantment in the path
of life wherdn Providence |daced it; and represses all
that may tend to disturb, even by tiie force of intel*-
lectual energies, that general tranquillity which it
conceives to fotm the greatest happiness of the
^eatest numbar. Thus, when the government per^
ceived that the &eiUty of education tended to the ex-
citement of an unsafe ambition, and that the sons of
small traders and mechanics were crowding from the
lower schools to the gymnasium, edicts were issued
rendering the preliminary examinations more severe ;
and the functionaries, whose licences are requisite
for all scholastic movements, were commanded to
restrain the children of every dass, to the places of
instruction best suited to their respective stations^
vnth the exception only of those in whom some pe->
culiar talent might be observed.
The political consequences of the educational sys^^
tern will be more particularly noticed in a future
chapter, wherein it will be seen that the state admits
none to its service but those whom it has trained ;
and that its strength consists in the uniformity of
public sentiment, and in the exercise of those affec*
tions which its benevolence has conciliated. The
subject may be here concluded with a few remarks
on its results in the formation of private character.
It has been seen that the great aim of the govern-
ment is to extend education as far as possible to all
v.] EDUCATION. 155
^sse6 of its fiubjeots ; but to do bo in such a maimer
as to lead to a peculiar formation of mind — a form*
ation which shall render them contented and useful
in their respeotire stations, and repel the ambition
of rising aboire <hem. The result corresponds with
the intention. Where the mere wants of nature are
supplied^ (and this^ except on bare limestone rocks,
is almost invariably the case, either from the wages
of indurtry^ or from public or private benevolence,)
no people on earth are so happy in themselves as the
Austrians,-— no people are more attached to their
existing institutions, — more mild and kindly in their
dispositions towards others, — ^more free from harsh
and malignant passions. Patient, docile, and obe-
dient, they are faithful subjects, soldiers, and ser-
vants. Tranquil and enjoying, they are benevolent
superiors, landlords, and masters. Simple-^minded
in the belief of their own religion, whatsoever it be,
and preserved by the strong hand of government
from ever hearing controversial discussion^ they are
tolerant and indifferent as to the creeds of others.
Well instructed in practical science, they are excel-
lent military and civil engineers and artificers ; and
as good general mechanicians and manufacturers as
the rest of the Germans. On the other hand, with-
out being indolent, they are careless and unenergetic
in their general pursuits — regardless of the value of
time — and without that ambition to excel, which
brings enterprise to perfection. Their classical ac-
quirements, even at their principal universities, are
156 AUSTRIA. [CH.
i-arely adequate to render them able critics or pio-
found scholars. Their easiness of temper produces,
in certain respects, a somewhat lax and indulgent
morality; and, in point of daring original genius, it
is rare to see a work of literature, art^ or science,
proceed from an Austrian.^
* These obaenrationa must be undetBtood as applicable to the
Gennan provinces, where the control of education, and the form*
ation of the public mind, are idkailyin the hands of the goTem-
ment. In Hungary the qualities of character are essen^iUy
difierent, and the same may be said of tiie Italian pnmnoes.
VI.] 157
CHAPTER VI.
CvMiNAL JuRisp&UDBNCB. — State of Criiaiiial Law a general
Evidence of sodal Character— Austrian Code — ^Its mild genius
•—Crimes, their classification and punishment — ^Misdemeanors,
ditto — Constitution and gradation of Tribunals — Nature of
proceedings, appeals, and supervisions — Rules of Evidence,
and privilege of Relations — Standrecht, or Martial Law —
Power given to Heads of Families— Moral Discipline — Indul-
gent genius of the System, and its great Peculiarities-— Quan-
tum of Crime in different Provinces, and remarks thereon —
Concluding Observations on the whole subject.
Two great elements in the formation of national
character have been considered — ^the state of the law
in regard to property of every kind, and the system of
public and private education. A third remains to be
noticed; less influential indeed than either of the
former, as a creator of character, but one, as far as it
goes, so important in itself, that without a fair view
of its general bearings, we may seek in vain to form
a just estimate of the condition of a people. This is
the nature and administration of criminal jurispru-
dence. Between laws passed for the regulation of
property, and those enacted for the punishment or
repression of crime, it may not be very incorrect to
draw this distinction. The former regulating the
158 AUSTRIA. [CH.
springs and the rewards of industry, die every day
dealings between man and man, aD tiie rights or dis-
abilities of acquiffltion and posses^n, affect the pur-
suits and the habits of every individoal ; and are thus
directly operative in the creation of the social cha^
racter. . The latter, moddled with a view to excep-
tive cases (for such must criminal delinquendes be
regarded with rs£eareaoe to society at large), are more
iimnediately the remit of the social eharaeter as it
already exists. Of any written code formed by hu-
man jurists, as of tiiose of France or Austria, we
cannot affirm (as ha3 been perhaps somewhat too
partially done c^the unwritten law of England), ttiat
it is the application of abstract theoretical wisdom. A
national code wiU, to a certain degree, adopt or be
founded on principles; but its enactments will be
modified and adapted, according to the experience
possessed by the legislator, of the character, the ten-
dencies> and the exigencies of the people^ for whom
it is formed. The decrees of Draco, which awarded
death as the only punishment for aU offence^ form
the surest evidence of that ferocious democratic licen*
tiousness, which the dread of iounediate capital pu-
nishment could alone subdue; and which it was
necessary first to crush, before the milder legislation
of Solon could be safely adopted. The pecumary com-
mutation allowed for every crime by the legislatures
of the early Grermanic tribes^ testifies of nations
among whom money was scarcely known, and the
possession of surplus wealth limited to a number of
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 159
kidiyiduals« too mmll to wdaoger* by thxir priidlege.
th^ pubUc intei^e^.* Were other evidenoe wanting,
we nogfat infer the absence of education in England
durii^ the earlier periods of our history, from that
''benefit of elergy," which protected from severer
punishments all who could read and write : and on
wnilar grounds we may estimate the genius and ten-
dencies of the Austrian character, from the proviidons
and peouliarij^ of a eriminal and correctional ad«
ministration^ unequalled in mildness, as to the prin-
cipal points of its actual working, by that of any
country in Europe.
The code actually in force through the whole of
the empire, with the exception of Hungary, Tran-
^Ivania, and the Italian provinces, was promulgated
by the late Emperor Francis in the year 1804. It
divides offences into the two great classes^****'' verire*
ch^' and *' 9<ihvoefe polizei ubertr^iungen ;'' the
nature of which, although the translation be not
strictly exact, will be sufficiently comprehended under
the English terms of erimea and misdemeamrs.
After a strict specification of the carcumstanees wUch
place an offence under the one or the other of th^r
general heads, the code proceeds to describe the forms
of procedure^ the rules of evidenoe, the rights of
appeal, tiie mode and extent of punishment, and the
* Th^ causes^ or ffindiplesy which produced these codes, or acts
of legislation, are quite distinct from the evidence they afibrd,
of the condition and character of the people. It is with a view
to the latter only that they are here referred to.
160 AUCTRIA. [CH.
regulations to be adopted in the internal discipline of
prisons. On all these points an attempt of extreme
precision is evinced, which^ as must evet oiicttr in
criminal laws applied to the ever varying d^Mes of
human fault, are subsequ^itly mitigated and modi-^
fied according to the circumstanees of the case. In
some points, an apparent seventy of pumslimettt is
denounced against delinquendes, which; on a surviey
of the modes ci procedure, vre find can be scarcely
ever substantiated. In others, a remarkable indul-
gence is extended to offences which in Ekigland
would be visited with extreme severity, provided
only their commission be not attended with pubUe
disorder. It will be most convenient, however, to
take a summary view of the law itself, before we
offer the remarks it suggests on the character of the
government and the people.
Crimes are offences of a certain magnitude com-
mitted with malice direct or implied. They are
punished with death, or by imprisonment for life, or
&r a period varying from six months to twenty years ;
and the severity of the imprisonment may be aggra--
vated, according to the sentence, by hard labour, by
diminution of food, by public exposure, and by bodily
castigation* not exceeding fifty stripes at each in^
fliction.
* Bodily castigation is admitted as an aggravation of punish-
ment on both sexes. On male adults it is applied with a stick :
on females, and youths under eighteen, with a flexible rod ; but,
as regards these, generally without removal of the garments.
VI.]: CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 161
Miselem^anore are faults of a minor grade> or un-
accompanied with malice. They are punished by
fines ; by eoofiseation of effects ; by imprisonment,
not exceeding six. months in duration ; by flogging
to the extent at each time of five and twenty blows ;
and by exile from a particular place or district, or
generally from the empire. Distinct tribunals exist
ior the trial of crimes and of misdemeanors, and»
aIso> generally speaking, distinct prisons for the re-
spective convicts, subject to the different rules of dis*
cipline. Corporal punishment is inflicted privately ;
and in many cases of misdemeanor, especially those
committed by youths, domestic imprisonment on
parole, or with a special guardian, is substituted for
confinement within the walls of a prison.
Capital punishment is assigned for three offences
only ; namely, high treason, murder, and the forgery
of current paper money issued either by the govern-
ment or by the bank of Vienna. High treason is
confined to attempts against the person of the sove-
reign ; the aiding and abetting of dangerous designs
from foreign enemies ; and the endeavour by force to
alter the existing institutions. Any preparatory act,
or consultation towards an act, suffices to constitute
the capital crime ; and the knowledge of a treason-
able conspiracy, without communication to the go-
vernment, or the power to prevent a treasonable act
without such power being exerted, are punishable
with imprisonment for life. Murder is a capital
offence, when it is committed with intention to kill ;
VOL. II. M
162 AUSTRIA. [CH.
or when death is the result of robbery oommitted with
violence, or of arson effected by conspiracy. Except
in these cases, the highest punishmwt of homicide is
twenty years' imprisonment ; and an especial exoep*
tion is made in favour of in&nticide, the mother being
subjected to an imprisonment of from five to ten
years, if the child be illegitimate, and of double that
period if it be born in wedlock. Forgery is capi-
tally punished only when committed in the falsifica-
tion of government or bank paper ; but utterers of
the forged notes are included in the capital crime, as
are also all accomplices of the forgery, even although
the act itself be yet incomplete — a degree of severity
the more remarkable^ as the falsification of coined
money is only punished with imprisonment for a term
of years.
For all other acts which enter into the class of
crime^^ the awarded punishment is imprisonment,
rendered more or less severe by fetters, hard labour,
and other accessaries, the maximum and the minimum
of which is in every case specified by the code ; it
being left to the court to apply such a portion of cas-
tigdtion between the two extremes, as may seem to
meet the justice of the case. Among the delin-
quencies thus punished, are infanticide, coining,
bigamy, simple arson, some cases of homicide which
do not amount to the capital offence, and severe inju-
ries done to the person by premeditated violence.
Duelling is a crime both in principals and seconds,
punished on the surviving actual combatant, if death
VI*] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 163
ensues, with twenty years' imprisonment in irons ; and
with imprisonment of greater or less duration and seve-
rity on all the parties, in every other case. Depre*
dations on property are crime when the amount
abstracted exceeds ten florins (twenty shillings ster-
ling) in value, or, however small the amount, when
connected with sacrilege. They become erime also,
where the value is above two florins only, when the
theft is committed by servants or labourers against
their masters, or by two or more persons in confede-
racy ; when the property is taken from an enclosed
place ; when it consists of the produce of the soil, or
agricultural implements, taken from an open field ; of
fish taken from a reservoir ; or of game taken any-
where. Thus the legislation of Austria has been
compelled to follow that of every other countiy, in
modelling her laws for the security of property,
rather on the experienced exigencies of society, than
on the moral turpitude of the offence. Robberies are
held to be crimes, or, as we should say, felonies, in
contradistinction to misdemeanors, if committed on
property in an inclosure, because adequate care has
there been taken for its protection ; and the act itself
proves the preconceived malicious intention of the
offender. They are visited with equal severity if
committed in the open field, on the opposite principle,
that there the property cannot be secured by the cau-
tion of the owner, and must therefore be protected by
the fear of severer punishment,* In one point the
* In no country of Europe is this difficulty of reconciling jua-
m2
164 AUSTRIA. [CH.
Austrian Code proceeds on a very sound principle.
All offences against property which are in the nature
of misdemeanors^ become crimes on the second in-
dictment.
The class of misdemeanors comprehend all of-
fences, (with the exception of those of the most trivial
character) which do not amount to crime. To at-
tempt their specific enumeration, would be a work of
tedious and unprofitable labour ; but still their im-
portance in the elucidation of national character ren-
ders it desirable to present a short summary of their
principal heads. It is so much the tendency and the
policy of the Austrian legal administration, to reduce
the generality of delinquencies to the minor from the
tice with expediency 8o much evinced, as in England. During
the last quarter of a century scarcely any two years have passed,
without some new enactments touching rohberies committed in
out-houses, or gardens, or orchards, or forests, or fields, alternately
raising the offences to capital felonies, and again depressing them
to mere misdemeanors. Jurists indeed are not wanting, who
assert the maxim, that in proportion as property is of necessity
exposed, so must be the severity of the law for its protection : a
maxim probably enforced by the wants of proprietors and the
constitution of society, but surely at variance with those principles
of morality which should mitigate the chastisement in proportion
to the temptation. He must be a very one-sided moralist who can
view an equal degree of turpitude in the peasant who, on travers-
ing a field, sees a lamb by the wayside and carries it to his home ;
and the burglar who, with fraud and force, breaks into a dwelling.
Yet, as the law of England was often practised until very recent
years, the latter would have had a better chance of escaping the
gallows, even than the former.
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 165
major class, that the laws of misdemeanor are in
many respects far more important than those of crime,
in their bearing on the social conduct of the people.
They may be most conveniently stated, as they regard
the following objects; and with respect to some
among them I shall notice the legal punishment
where it may appear interesting to do so ; leaving it
to be understood, in regard to the rest, that the of-
fenders may be visited with fine, or with imprison-
ment from a few days to six months, with or without
fetters, hard labour, and bodily castigation.
1. Misdemeanors against the State. — Under this
head are tumultuous and riotous assemblages. The
holding of secret societies, which is punished with
sentence of imprisonment in irons for three days to six
months on the founders of the society, and from one
to three months on each member, and on the owner
of the house of meeting. Breaches of the regula*
tions set forth by the executive authority touching the
press ; such as the publication or circulation of books'
and printed papers unsanctioned by the censors;
similarly punished with imprbonment in irons.
2. Misdemeanors against pubUe order and safety.
— Injuries done to public monuments and objects.
Neglect of householders and innkeepers, in not report-
ing to the police their lodgers and inmates, — punished
with fine ; and on repetition of offence by innkeepers,
by withdrawal of license. The making of false re-
turns by innkeepers or householders, — imprisonment
in irons. Neglect of traders in admitting jom*neymen
166 AUSTRIA. [CH.
into their employ without certificates of good conduct,
&c. from the police of thdr district ; — fine, and on third
offence imprisonment. The gilding, plating, or fal-
sification of current coin,—- one to three months* im-
prisonment in irons ; and the unlawful possession of
implements of falsification, — imprisonment, on first
offence, from one to four weeks. Postmasters, within
four relays from any provincial capital, granting post-
Iiorses to travellers who have arrived not in post nor
with the usual post-office order, before the expiration
of forty-eight hours from the time of their arrival, —
are fined. The sale of unwholesome food, and the
adulteration of liquors, — fine and imprisonment. Over-
driving, and other acts calculated to endanger pas-
sengers in the streets and public places. Strict and
precise enactments are made, accompanied with
severe punishment for their infraction, against mas-
ters, servants, architects, and others ; in all that re-
gards danger from fire, the wrong construction and
overheating of stoves, the carrying lighted coals into
closed rooms, or torches through woods, &c. Com-
binations of workmen are regarded as misdemeanors,
but punished very slightly.
3. Misdemeanors against private property and
safety. — ^Thefts not of such character, either in point
of value or circumstance, as to enter the class of crimes.
The purchase of suspicious articles from minors.
Usury is punished as misdemeanor under specific
separate enactments, connected with, or contained in,
the commercial code.
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 167
4. Misdemeafiors against the person and reputation
qf individuals. — Common assaults. Excessive punish-
ment of children and dependents by their parents or law-
ful superiors. Concealment of illegitimate births^ —
three months' imprisonment with hard labour. The
careless exposure of children in circumstances whence
death or injury accidentally ensue^-^imprisonment
for three months, with or without irons, inflicted
on the parents. The severest punishments of which
misdemeanor is susceptible, are awarded for defa-
mation committed by word, writing, or even ges-
ture ; including every kind of action whereby the
feelings or comfort of individuals may be disturbed :
for the betrayal of professional confidence by medical
practitioners ; and also for the professional delinquen-
cies of physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries ; such
as culpable neglect or ignorance, the practising with-
out diploma, error, however unintentional, in the pre-
paration or administration of medicines, and the sale
or even the possession of those drugs which in the
ordinances are enumerated as " poison," without spe-
cial licence for that purpose.
5. Misdemeanors against Public Morality. —
Mendicancy is a misdemeanor only when repeatedly
and obstinately practised, against those rules which
the local authorities of each place have the power to
impose; or when accompanied by the exposure of
unsightly deformities in order to excite compassion.
The mendicancy of children is punished on their
parents, with imprisonment from eight days to a
168 AUSTRIA. [CH.
month. Gambling, or the practiee of forbidden games,
subjects all persons engaging in them, or permitting
them in his house, to a penalty of 900 florins (90/.
sterling) or imprisonment in irons from .one to three
months ; and in cases of foreigners, to exile from the
empire. Drunkenness is not in itself a misdemeanor,
except in the case of workmen and others employed
on roofs or scaffoldings ; of servants entrusted with
the charge of fire ; and of domestics generally, when
the habit has become eingealteter (inveterate), and as
such, is legally denounced by complaint of their mas-
ters. It may then be punished on the first complaint,
with five-and-twenty stripes, and, on a subsequent
charge, with imprisonment in irons from eight days to
a month; accompanied with hard labour and low
diet. In all other cases, drunkenness is punished only
when, under its influence, an offence is committed,
which, but for the intoxication of the perpetrator,
would have amounted to crime. It is then visited
with imprisonment in irons, for one to three months,
which is doubled when experience had taught the
offender, that, under the influence of liquor he was not
master of his own actions. Of misdemeanors, con-
nected with personal incontinence, I abstain from
entering into a minute specification ; but the remarks
I shall offer in regard to them in a fixture part of this
chapter, will suffice to indicate their character, and the
peculiar indulgence with which they are regarded.
Scarcely less important than the actual provisions
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 169
of penal law, is the mode of procedure by which they
are applied ; and of this I feel it expedient, even at
the risk of being deemed somewhat tedious, to trace
the principal pitHnts, before I can venture to suggest
any general conclusions.
In every inhatnted place, great or small, the con*
servation of public order is confided to certain autho*
rities; appointed, according to local circumstances,
either by the inhabitants at large, by the manorial
lords, by the crown, or finally, in cities and more
considerable towns, under the provisions of their re-
spective charters. The power of primary investiga-
tion inherent in these local functionaries, extends to
all delinquencies ; but beyond this, the procedures for
crime and for misdemeanor are through gradations
of perfectly distinct tribunals, of which I shall now
attempt to give a brief notice. First, as to the former,
— namely, the process in matter of crime. In each
district is a criminal tribunal (kriminal gericht;) in
each province is a superior criminal tribunal (oberste
kriminal gericht) ; and above the whole, is the su^
preme court (hof gericht), at Vienna* In the ordi-
nary course, except where the accused has, from birth
or station, the privilege of being heard at once by the
district tribunal, the preliminary inquiries take place
before the local authorities ; which^ for this purpose,
constitute a court, consisting of a magistrate, with two
sworn assessors, taken from among the more respect-
able inhabitants. The decision of the majority of
these three, either summarily dismisses the case or
170 AUSTRIA. [CH.
remits it for trial to the district tribunal ; the prisoner
being, in the meantime, either confined or admitted to
bail, according to circumstances. The district tri-
bunal consists of a judge, and of a certain nund[)er of
sworn assessors, whose functions may be somewhat
compared to those of a jury, since by the majority of
tbeir opinions the case is decided. All the testimony^
in every stage of an Austrian process, is taken apart
from the prisoner ; either in writing, or, if orally, then
immediately committed to writing, signed by the wit-
ness, and confirmed by bis oath. There are persons,
however, from whom the oath cannot be taken ; and
their testimony consequently, although admitted in
corroboration, according to the^credit it may seem to
merit, has not of course the weight of sworn evi-
dence« These are all persons under fourteen years
of age ; accomplices, or suspected accomplices ; per-
sons living in notorious hostility to the accused ; and
such as are under examination or punishment for ano-
ther offence. No one can, in his testimony against
another, be required to answer questions which would
criminate himself: the evidence of persons under
legal disabilities is invalid: but, more important
than all the above together, in favour of the pri-
soner, is the provision, that not only husband and
wife, but all relations in the direct ascending and de-
scending lines, brothers and sisters, nephews and
nieces, are excused respectively from giving any evi-
dence whatever, sworn or unsworn. They may be
asked to depose : but if the protocols of the proce-
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 171
dare do not contain the recital, signed by themselves,
that they have been fully warned of their privilege,
their testimony is expunged. Cases of high treason
form the sole exception ; and that only to this extent :
a relative may therein be compelled to depose, in con-
firmation of a fact otherwise partially established;
but even for this most grave of all crimes in the penal
code of every country, a criminal cannot be capitally
executed, on circumstantial evidence confirmed by the
direct testimony of relatives only. From the depo-
sitions legally taken, as well as from the reports of
the preliminary investigation, it becomes the duty of
an officer of the court to draw up a statement in every
criminal case, embodying the evidence, and propound-
ing a string of written interrogatories to be put to the
prisoner. These preparatory steps having been com-
pleted, the court assemble, and the prisoner is intro-
duced. The proceeding is theoretically private ; but
it is not so in fact, since all students at law and vari-
ous other persons have the privilege of attending (a
privilege largely exercised in every interesting case),
and of taking notes, which, however, they are not per-
mitted to publish. The prisoner is not allowed the
aid of legal assistance ; but, on the other hand, he is
protected from much of the embarrassment incidental
to oral examination, by the strict rule that those
queries only can be put, which have been previously
written down, and they must be propounded in the
order in which they stand upon the paper. If motive
for further query arises from the replies of tlie pri-
172 AUSTRIA. [CH.
soner (all of which are committed to pap^)> new
interrogatories must be prepared, which must be an-
swered at a future audience, — ^the prisoner being
always at liberty to append to Us replies such ob-
servations and explanations as be thinks proper ; but,
in case of obstinate refusal to reply, then he is com-
mitted to hard labour and severe abstinence in priscm,
until, on his own request and promise to answer, he
is again brought up before the court • In the genei-al
conduct of a criminal case, we observe a somewhat
amusing struggle to combine the principles of the oM
Roman law, on which the greater part of continental
jurisprudence is founded, with the more enlightened
practice of modem legislation. Under the Roman
law, no person could be sentenced for the higher class
of crimes but on his own confession; and hence,
from the perversion of a principle merciful in itself,
arose the monstrous practice of wringing by torture
that avowal, which was the evidence, not of guilty con-
sciousness, but of bodily agony. The Austrian court
having first formed its opinion of the probabilities of
guilt from the depositions before it, seeks also, on the
Roman principle, to obtain confession : but it does so
mainly, through the medium of ^' solemn warnings" ad-
dressed to the accused, and of interrogations purposely
framed with a view to its elicitation. Neither pro-*
mise nor threat may be ^nployed ; nor may the name
of any presumed accomplice be mentioned in order to
intimidate ; but the prisoner may be awed by the asser-
tion tiiat the court are in possession of clear and suffi-*
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE 173
cient evidence, ahhough the nature of that evidence be
withheld. He is never entitled to see the depositions ;
but^ with a view to elicit confession, their nature is to
be gradually revealed to him ; and, finally, the names
of tl^ deposing witnesses. Should he still persist in
the denial of guilt, he is entitled to a confrontation with
the witnesses; one only at a time, if several have de-
posed ; when the points of evidence denied are read
over in presence of both parties, and the assertions of
each> in c(Hifirmati(»i, admission, or denial, duly re-
corded. It is on failure of all these endeavours to
obtain the great object of Roman jurisprudence, that
the court proceeds to judgment on the evidence only ;
and, in doing so, if direct evidence be insufficient, it
admits circumstantial evidence, under considerable and
specified limitations, and with this distinction, — that
no capital sentence can be passed on circumstantial
testimony alone. A " protocol," comprising all the
proceedings and evidence, with arguments thereon,
is prepared by a proper officer, and read before the
court, consisting of the judge and the assessors. Each
gives a written opinion as to guilt or innocence, ag-
gravating or extenuating circumstances^ and punish-
ment to be inflicted ; and it is only in cases of equa-
lity, that the judge has the casting vote. ;^fore a
sentence is final, it must in most cases have the con-
firmation of a superior authority. Thus every judg-
ment of the district tribunal, where confession has not
been obtained, or where the punishment reaches five
years' imprisonment, must be submitted to the provin-
174 AUSTRIA. [CH.
Gial court ; who have the povirer to commute, and in so
doing to augment or to mitigate, all saye sentences of
death or imprisonment for life. Cases of capital
crime, of official malversation, as well as those wfaerrin
the provincial court may have augmented pumshment,
are further referred to the supreme court of Vienna ;
who must obtain the royal warrant for every
capital punishment. This gradation of supervimoii
is no unimportant security to the prisoner; for,
since all the minutes of the proceedings are re-
quired by law to be detailed in the written records,
and any defect of formality, such as an irregularity
in the interrogations, or the examination of a privi^
leged witness without a specification that he was ap^
prized of his right to refrain giving evidence, is &tal
to the proceedings. Independent of tibis regular refer-
ence to higher functionaries, a right of appeal exists
in most cases, which may be exercised by the prisoner,
or by any relation or lawful superbr, in his behalf;
and which extends to alleged irregularities of proce-
dure, false application of law, or excessive severity of
judgment.
In regard to misdemeanors y the gena'al principles
and proceedings are very similar to those detailed
with reference to crime — the same observances in
respect to evid^ce, to interrogations, to written pro-
tocols of all the process, and to the supervising autho-
rity of supreme courts — ^but in certain points, miti-
gations in favour of ihe accused are admitted, whic^h
in a criminal case are not allowed. The tribunals,
YI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 176
which, as before mentioDed* are -distinct from those
for the investigation of criine> consist of the follow-
ing gradations. First, the local authorities of the
village or town, and which are practically a magifi«-
trate, assiisted by two sworn assessors, and an actuary
or registrar : secondly, the kreisampt, which has been
formerly mentioned as the administrative council of
the district, and which, in matters of misdemeanor,
forms a distinct court: thirdly, the landesstelle of
the province; composed of the governor and his
council of provincial government; and, finally, the
supreme hofstelle, or high court of police, at Vi-
enna. The primary local court has summary juris^
diction as far as one month's imprisonment or ten
blows; but, in such cases, the assessors give the
judgment, and only on their disagreement in opinion,
has the presiding magistrate a vote. Matters in
which the law awards a higher punishment than a
month's imprisonment or ten blows, must be revised
by the kreisampt ; who have no power to alter, but
may either confirm, or send forward the case to the
landesstelle of the province. Charges connected with
secret societies, with offences against the censorship
of the press, and for inveigling subjects out of the
country, must be referred to the supreme hofstelle at
Vienna, and can only be pardoned by the sovereign.
In every other case a power of pardon rests in the
hofstelle ; and of commutation and mitigation also in
the landesstelle of the province. Appeals are allowed
in all cases, except those of the most trifling descrip-
176 AUSTRIA. [CH.
tion, on the ground of informality, and in many, on
the general merits: and acquittals for defidency of
evidence are absolute ; which is not quite the ease in
criminal charges^ wherm proceedings may be sus-
pended^ and with certain limitations be renewed on
further evidence being obtained.
Some remarks will be presently offered on the
general results of that judicial administration, which
has been now explained : but it will be obvious to
every one, that processes so cautious wd dilatory, so
embarrassed with technical formalities, with super-
vision following supervision, and moreova* with pecu-
liar difficulties respecting the legality of evidence which
I have not yet explained, can be little adapted for
those emergencies, which require a prompt execution
of justice for the preservation of public tranquillity.
Hence the code, containing specific rules under
which a province or district may be temporarily
withdrawn from the ordinary application of the
law, by the proclamation and application of the
standrecht: and although, in Austria, the royal
power of legislation is theoretically absolute, and law
is constituted by the promulgation of ordinances, yet
the rules of the standrecht are as strictly defined, as
those of the more ordinary processes ; nor is it be-
lieved, since the enactment of the present code in
which they are embodied, that they have ever been
infringed. The cases wherein the standrecht, or
what might be termed with us martial law, can be
proclaimed, are those of actual insurrection, or of such
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 177
viokat public disorder as cannot be suppressed by the
ordiiiary magistrates. In such cases^ the governor,
and oilier public authorities of the province, in con-
junction with the judges of the higher criminal tri-
bunal, have the power to proclaim the standrecht,
either for the whole province, or for any district
thereof, specially setting forth in the proclamation the
cause of the proceeding. A special commission is
formed of five judges, taken from the ordinary tri-
bunals or administrations, who, being duly sworn,
have cognizance over those offences only, which are
connected with the cause set forth in the proclama-
tion; but with power to compel evidence from all
persons, including relatives of the accused. Sum-
mary despatch, with a view to the immediate restora-
tion of order, is ihe object and rule of the standrecht.
Parties are to be immediately arraigned, and sentence
to be passed within twenty-four hours from the time of
the arrest. That sentence is death, in the case of those
ringleaders and principals in insurrection or disorders,
whom it may be deemed necessary at once to strike
down; and execution by hanging, without appeal,
must follow within three hours after the sentence is
passed. Abettors and minor culprits may be sen-
tenced to imprisonment in irons for five to ten years ;
and fine may be imposed in recompense of injury
done to individuals, which becomes matter of civil
debt to the injured party. Yet, even with thes^ sum-
mary proceedings are combined great provisions of
mercy. The functions of the president, who may be
VOL. II. N
178 AUSTRIA. [CH.
supposed to be the person principally in the confi-
dence of the crown, are confined to the examination
of the witnesses, and of the accused. The judgment
and the sentence rest with the four assessors : and if
their opinions be equally divided, or if the crime
be not so clear as to admit of judgment being passed
within the twenty-four hours from the period of the
arrest, the case is referred to the ordinary tribimals.
The protocols of all proceedings of the special com*
mksion must be transmitted to the ordinary provin^
cial court, within three days from the termination of
each case. It can take no cognizance of any matter
unconnected with the cause announced in the pro^
clamation ; and its functions, having ceased with the
circumstances which occasioned them, cannot be re-
newed without further special cause and distinct pro^
clamation.
As the stsuidrecht is an exceptive means of sus-
taining the public order, so the special ordinances
against contraband trade are the exceptive protection
of the revenue. The code, correctional and criminal,
contains not one enactment connected with fiscal
subjects, except those which regard the current coin
and the circulating paper. All commercial regula-
tions, and all enactments for the suppression of
smuggling, are matter of special ordinance ; and, like
revenue laws in general, in every country, they are,
in their nature, arbitrary, inquisitorial^ and oppressive.
They serve as an authority, especially in the pro-
vinces bordering the frontiers, for visits of person and
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE, 179
and domicile by any functionary armed with the
proper commission, which may often be vexatious :
they throw great> though in fact ever evaded restric-
tions, in the way of trade ; and they visit the perpe-
trators of habitual or repeated smuggling with severe
punishment. In their actual operation however,
which I shall have occasion to refer to in a future
chapter on the revenue system, they are little felt by
those who are not wilful or habitual transgressors.
l%eir sevmty is mitigated by the almost unlimited
indulgence, which is granted by the government, for
the admission of foreign goods of every description
for private use ; and, with the exception of dealings
in the two articles which form the royal monopolies,
salt and tobacco, the weight of legal vengeance is
very far from heavy. Salt and tobacco are the great
objects to which all the fiscal denunciations especially
pcHnt ; for, on the monopolies connected therewith, a
large branch of revenue depends. On all other
points of exceptional law, both those of the fisc and
those of the standrecht, much of practical indulgence
is allowed to temper legal austerities.
Enough has now been said, for a general under-
standing of this interesting subject. I rather regret
the necessity I have felt to encumber it with the rules
of the standrecht ; since that mode of procedure is so
entirely exceptive, and of such exceedingly rare oc-
n2
180 AUSTRIA. [CH.
currence, if indeed it ever occurs at all, as to have no
influence on the social character. It has been vdth a
view to the belief not unnaturally entertained, that
under a nominally absolute sovereignty, popular ex-
cesses are restricted by the mere autocratic force of
the crown, that I have deemed it requisite to show
the strictly methodical mode of procedure adopted by
the Austrian government, even in cases of actual re-
bellion ; but the ordinary judicial administration can
alone be viewed as influencing or evincing the po-
pular mind and tendencies; and therefore on it I
shall proceed to notice some important peculiarities,
and to offer a few general observations.
It is a matter of curious interest, to observe that
uniformity of principle which runs through the whole
of the Austrian institutions : — ^that species of paternal
or patriarchal spirit, which, ever asserting authority,
and ever extending indulgence, prevails alike in go-
vernment, education, and law. Thus we may at first
sight regard as tending to injustice, the system of pri-
vate interrogation ; we may be shocked at the denun-
ciation of impiisonment in irons, and of corporeal
punishment inflicted even upon females: but when,
on the other hand, we consider the actual course of
procedure, the gradations of supervision and appeal,
the rules of evidence, and the almost endless legal
grounds of mitigation, it seems difficult to imagine
how a high criminal sentence can be ever inflicted at
all. The law admits every kind of palliation resulting
from age, sex, and circumstance. Thus, sentence of
vl] criminAx jurisprudence. 181
death, or of imprisonment for life, cannot be passed
on |>ersons who at the tune of the commission of the
crime had not completed their eighteenth year : nei^
ther, as formerly observed, can capital punishment be
inflicted on any one, without the immediate warrant
of the sovereign. The delinquencies of children are in
many cases rather severely visited on their parents ; but,
under ten years of age, the children themselves are left
to domestic correction, and cannot be in any way pu-
nished by the public authorities. Offences committed
between the ages of ten and fourteen, whatsoever be
their character or gravity, are viewed and punished as
misdemeanours only. At the age of fourteen, the law
imposes full responsibility for the commission of
crime ; but requires a fiulher age of four years more,
before crime can be visited with capital punishment.
If these humane provisions in favour of youth seem
to argue well of a system of training, under which
youthful delinquency must be so far rare and trivial
as to require, for the safety of society, no stronger
enactments of repression, — those which regard offences
committed within the recesses of private life exhibit
the confidence which the government reposes, and it
will probably be thought, rather unduly reposes, in
the strength and wisdom of domestic rule. Through
the whole code, both of crime and misdemeanour, we
may observe the prevailing principle, that acts become
punishable, mainly and some times wholly, as they
have a tendency to disturb public order ; and so long
as this is not endangered, the public prosecutor in-
182 AUSTRIA. [CH.
vades not domestic privacy. As the head of the
family is supposed to be responsible for the good <km-
duct of all those who live under his roof, so from him
alone can legal complaint be received of any delin*
quency, which within his walls may be committed.
Every species of personal immorality, however enor-
mous in its character and circumstances, if committed
in domestic privacy, — every invasion of property, how-
ever extensive, committed as between relations living
together,— can be recognised by law only on complaint
of the domestic chief: and when this important cir-
cumstance is borne in mind, together with the diffi-
culties of process, the privileged exemption of rela-
tives Yrom giving testimony, and the great inclination
of the courts to view with leniency all transgressions
of personal indulgence, it must be evident that in-
dictments, at any rate for these descriptions of delin-
quency, must be very rare, and convictions scarcely
possible.
As respects transgressions in general, except such
as regard the public safety or the protection of the
paper currency, or such as betoken confirmed habits of
vice, there is a constant tendency to reduce the offence
from the class of crime to that of misdemeanor ; and
those who have been accustomed to inveigh against
the suspicious severity of the Austrian government in
matter of political offences, may have be^i surprised
to observe, in the list of misdemeanors only, and con-
sequently as subjected to minor punishment, all trans-
gressions relating both to secret societies and to Ihe
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 183
cmsoxship of the press. Misdemeanors, in fact,
comprise the general body of Austrian offences ; and
the p^msfament for them is essentially correctional,
and tempered, under direct enactments, with a view
to the circumstances of the party. Tlie injury which
a family or a parent would sustain from the imprison-
ment of a transgressor, is a special legal ground for
its dHTtaOment, or for its commutation altogether
against fine or corporeal fla^Uation. If the offender
be a mechanic, the m^e mjury to his own future
prospeets, .^though be have no family dependent on
him, is a sunilar legal ground of mitigation. No
asicourag^nent is held out to accusations. The law
contains severe enactments against calumnious accu-
sers ; but, although fine is the punishment directly or
indirectly of a multitude of transgressions, no portion
of the fine is conceded, except in the single case of
iad£«ivful gsunbling, as a recompense to the iiiformer.
As in most cases no charge can be received for any
domestic disorder, except from the head of the family,
so on the other hand the head of the family receives
the ready aid of the public force, in vindication of his
domestic authority. On his complaint, privately in-
vestigated, the refractory son, the wayward daughter,
and the rebellious servant, are ooiinmitted to some
boose of seclusion, where, for the period of a week
or two, they are left to their solitary reflections.
They are kindly treated; lodged and supported at
the expense of their parents or masters according to
their respective conditions ; employed in study or in
184 ' AUSTRIA. [CH.
work ; and are preserved from the scandal winch the
idea of imprisonment would inflict on thdr future
lives, by the close concealment of tbdr names and
circumstances, even from aQ the officers of the police
and of the prison, except the chief alone.
If we inquire into the practical result of the cri-
minal and correctional administration which has now
been detailed, and if, for that purpose, we adopt the
not unusual, though very fallacious idea, that the
number of indictments is a test of the quantity of
popular delinquency, we shall be disposed to pro-
nounce that the system is excellently adapted to the
character of a people formed, by Icmg habit and as-
sociations, to the genius of the Austrian rule ; but
that in those more recently-acquired districts, where
ferocious crime requires to be checked by speedy and
stem severity, its long and cautious processes are very
inadequate to the preservations of public order. It is
in Dalmatia and Istria that this inadequacy is the
most experienced : the former an ancient dependance
of Hungary, the latter of Venice ; and both of them
reduced, by long periods of corruption, oppression, and
misrule, to a state of barbarous popular fierceness,
which the mild temper of the Austrian code, and espe-
cially its privileged exemptions in regard to evidoice,
would seem calculated rather to encourage than sub-
due. Taking the whole of the empire (with the ex-
ception of Hungary and of Lombardo-Venice, which
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 183
enter not into our present consideration) the propor-*
tionate number of prosecutions is the greatest in
these two provinces of Dalmatia and Istria ; and next
to these» in Tyrol and lUyria ; in all of which the
demoralization produced by local or antecedent cir-
cumstances> may, probably, have been extended and
confirmed during their subjection, for many years of
the last wars, to the rule of France. Between these,
and the other German provinces 'which were not
severed fi-om the Austrian sceptre, a wide line of
distinction exists in regard to the records of crime.
In Gallieia, where, next to the provinces already
cited, the proportion of prosecutions to the number
of inhabitants is the greatest, that proportion is not
one half of that which exists even in Tyrol or
lUyria. In Bohemia the proportion is smaller than
in Gallieia. In the central provinces of Lower Aus-
tria and Syria, smaller than in Bohemia ; and smallest
of all^ in Moravia and Silesia. Connected with this
enumeration, two circumstances may be briefly
noticed^ which may possibly surprise those who fonri
their notions of facts from mere statistical tables.
The one regards feudality. Taking together the ten
millions and a half of " subjects" in GaUicia, Bohemia,
Moravia, and Silesia, where feudal institutions continue
in great comparative force, and comparing them with
the five millions who form the population of the south-*
ern provinces which are relieved from the reality of
feudal pressure, we find the proportion of prosecutions
to be only one-third in the former of what it is in the
1 86 AUSTRIA. [CH.
latter ; and tbe proportion would be still further re-
duced, if the provinces of Austria and Styria were
excluded from the calculation. The other regards
education* In Tjrrol, where the proporticmate numr
her of children attending schools is greater than in
any other German province except Austria and Styria^
there prosecutions abound ; while amid the five mil-
lions of Gallicians, the least educated of all the sub-
jects of the empire, Ihere want of instruction and ex-
emption hom crime would seem to go hand in hand.
In deductions however, drawn from mere statistical
tables, there must be always uncertainty^ and often
error. It has been seen how generally the Austrian
code inclines to estimate and to punish crime, in pro-
portion to its publicity, rather than its moral turpitude ;
and hence the numerical prevalence of offences will
always appear the greatest, where they are accompa-
nied with the most open violence ; and where, what
may be turned the moral power of the public autho-
rity, is the least effective. In the {Nrovinoes nearest
to ^e metropolis, the anxiety of the government to
promote the popular contentment and avert individual
dissatisfaction, its disinclination especially to all that
may create excitement, cause a general tendency to
adopt the milder course of liberating offenders on their
reo(^nizances, and with admonitions not to offend
again; rather than to institute those proceedings
whereby their names would swell the list of prosecu-
tions. In the feudal dominations of the north, a
somewhat similar result is produced by different
YI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 187
means, and with different objects. The manorial lord
or his agent is averse to the removal of the " subject"
from the site of his labour or employment : he has
no inclination to increase the influence of the imperial
tribunals : hence, by virtue of his police authority,
he inflicts the summary punishment of a few blows,
or three days' imprisonment, for delinquencies which
are never publicly noticed, but which, in regular pro-
cess of law, would at all events have amounted to
misdemeanor, and probably to crime.
Taking a general view of the whole subject, the
system of criminal legislation and its practical results,
we may pronounce, that the provisions of the code
are in excellent harmony with the character of the
people for whom they are primarily intended. That
they are extended to Dalmatia and Istria, Tyrol
and lUyria, arises from the desire of the crovm to
establish a uniformity of law through the whole of
its German dominions : and the hope it professes, of
gradually improving the moral condition of its less
tractable subjects by the mild influences of a lenient
administration, does not appear to be altogether dis-
appointed, since the amount of crime, although still
very great in these unruly districts, is reported to be
in course of steady and decided abatement. It is
not in these exceptional localities however, that we
must examine the characteristics of Austrian law.
We must turn to the great bulk of the German pro-
vinces ; and to that large and varied population which
has been trained to the principles of the Austmn
188 AUSTRIA. [CH,
rule, by long habit and early education. We shall
there find it, not only fostering the already esta-*
blished tendencies of the popular mind, but, on the
principle set forth in the beginning of this chapter,
bearing evidence also of what these tendencies actu-
ally are. We shall find them testify of a people^
trained to veneration for the government, passive
and confiding submission to all authority, kindliness
of social character, and great indulgence to personal
frailty, — of a government, anxious to combine the
preservation of public order, with the greatest assur-
ance of private enjoyment, and of family concord.
Hence the legal culpability of acts^ in proportion to
their publicity. Hence the weight given to domestic
authority. Hence the anxiety to preserve individual
comfort and the confidence of family affection, by
severe enactments against calumny, or even ridicule;
the discouragement of accusations ; the exemption of
relations from giving criminating testimony, and even
the inadmissibility of their charges as against each
other, while forming a common family. Hence, too,
that sort of paternal sentiment, which, descending
from the government to the magistrates, induces
them, as well from prevailing individual habit, as from
the positive instructions of the code, to yield a ready
attention to every palliating circumstance, and every
species of mitigation. It may not be improbably
inquired, whether a system such as this could be sus-
tained in practice, were there not some secret coun-
tervailing forces to preserve it from inefficiency —
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 189
and such forces it may not be very difficult to detect.
Tbe most important one is, no doubt, that veneration
for all jauthority, composed both of love and fear,
which generally pervades the public mind. It is a
sentiment which, especially in matters connected
with political offence or public disquiet, renders each
individual the voluntary instrument of informa-
tions and denouncements, which the government itself
may not seem to invite; and which causes in all,
such a submission to the public functionaries, that in
perhaps a majority of cases, the voice of private
admonition and injimction renders unnecessary the
vigour of the law. But there exists another force,
in that very caution of process which might at first
sight appear to tend only in favour of the accused.
Notwithstanding the many enactments of the code
for the despatch of procedure, yet every tribunal does
in fact possess the faculty of almost indefinitely ex-
tending it, by committals for rehearing, and for fur-*
ther interrogations ; and indeed the necessary delays
attendant on the long- written protocols, &c. are so
considerable,^ that, with every inclination to promp-
titude, a criminal sentence is rarely passed in lesa
than eight or ten months from the time of the first
arrest.* During this period, the accused, unless
liberated on bail, is mildly treated, but he is in fact
• This varies in different provinces, and under different cir
camstances ; but unless, as may be the case in matters of high
treason, especial despatch is used, the processes are generally
tedious.
190 AUSTRIA. [CH.
a prisoner ; and thus a sort of correctional process is
established^ under which the magistrates may be-
come criminal arbitrators rather than judges. They
know, from abundant sources of information, as well
as from the depositions, the character of the ac-
cused, and the probabilities of his guilt. The cor-
rectional process of preliminary confinement, with
the warnings, and instructions, and admonitions that
attend it, may sometimes be applied when legal
proof of guilt may not be easy ; and notorious dis-
turbers of the public peace may be restrained in their
course of crime, by a tedious investigation of charges
whereof they may be ultimately acquitted. That
this kind of semi-arbitrary power, both in the judges
of the courts and the local magistrates, may be
sometimes abused, is a supposition necessarily found-
ed on the imperfections of man. That such is ojien
the case, in other words, that frequent injustice is the
result of it, is rendered highly improbable, by that
uniform tendency to indulgence pervading the nunds
of all, whether magistrates or others, formed in the
common mould ; — by that real, although, not theoreti-
cal publicity, which to a certain degree attends their
proceedings ; — ^and especially by the anxious super-
vision of a government, resting its pow«r on willing
obedience, and therefore ever alive to prevent well-
founded individual murmurs. These appear to be
the principal countervailing forces, which compen-
sate the mildness of the Austrian system ; but, were
VI.] CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE. 191
the people less attached to their rulers, or were the
Habeas Corpus act appended to the code, it may be
a question, whether the criminal law, as it at present
stands, would suffice for the good government even
of the people of Austria.
192 [oh,
CHAPTER Vir.
Morals. — Liability to error in estimating National Morality —
Excellencies of the Austrian Moral Character — Whence pro-
duced — Early training — Absence of certain Excitements to
Vice — ^Nature of the Civil Government — Defects of the Aus-
trian Moral Character — Tendency to personal Indulgences —
Tables of Illegitimate Births in Cities and Provinces, with Re-
marks — Effects of certain Impediments to Marriage, and of
certain Provisions of Law — Institutions of Maternity and Or-
phan Asylums : their organisation and effects — Observance of
Parental and Filial Duties, with Remarks on the Laws of In-
heritance— ^Observance of the Conjugal Duties, and Remarks
on the Laws of Marriage — Facility of Divorce among the Pro-
testants, and its effects — Concluding Observations.
In no point is the observer of human nature so liable
to fall into misconceptions and errors, to be deceived
by superficial appearances, and misled by partial in-
formation, as in the estimate he forms of general
national morality. It is a subject which the candid
foreigner will especially approach with caution and
diffidence. He will be wary of forming a deoision
on the social character of other countries, when he
reflects how little he really knows of its condition in
his own ; how mainly his ideas are founded on what
he has been accustomed to survey, in the peculiar
localities and conditions of life wherein he himself
YII.] MORALS. 193
has moved ; how much he is prone f o over and to
under-rate particular good and evil qualities, in pro-
portion as his own station, circumstances, and tem-
perament, may more or less dispose him to certain of
the former, and more or less subject him to certain
of the latter. On documentary statements he will
hardly venture to place much reliance. Those
founded on private estimate and computation are
usually tinged with partiality and prejudice, and must
at all events be inadequate to the establishment of
fact — ^while the public records of correctional or cri-
minal tribunal present, it may be hoped, only excep-
tive cases, as regards society at large ; and these cases
will appear more or less proportionably numerous, as
the police of a district or a country may be more or
less lax or severe, indifferent or suspicious. The
actions and habits which evince the real character
will, in the bulk, be usually such as can hardly enter
into statistical tables of any sort ; and the person who
has largely surveyed mankind in various countries
and conditions, and who bears in mind that Christian
as well as natural morals comprehend all the
duties of man, as a social and a rational being, will
probably arrive at the belief, that however peculiar
excellencies or defects may be prominent in peculiar
states or stations, the average of aggregate moral
character is much more nearly equal, than at the out-
set of his inquiries he may have been inclined to sup-
pose.
The principal excellencies of the Austrian moral
VOL. II. o
194 AUSTRIA. [gH.
charaeter, as observed in the German states of the
empire, consist in personal sobriety and temperance ;
in sincerity and honesty of mutual dealings ; in aver-*
sion to fraud and violence of every description ; in
an habitual readiness to succour the needy and the
indigent ; and a general benevolence of temperament
which disposes to the fulfilment of the paternal and
filial duties, and the exercise of all the gentler chari-
ties of life. These are the natural results of that
early training, which, whether it be included under the
term scholastic education, or merely clerical and
parental precept with domestic habit and example,
all alike receive. It is a training essentially con-
nected with religion ; for even wh«*e the established
schools are unattended, some portion of pastoral super-
vision, some instruction in moral duties as dependent
on religious truths, is conveyed to the humblest and
most ignorant cottager ; — and one of its most import**
ant characteristics is the repressive control it exerts
over the imagination, that most dangerous, though
delightfiil faculty, to the indulgence of which may be
traced so very large a portion of human wretchedness
and vice. Habits and tendencies, quiet orderly and
happy, are thus created in the youthfiil mind, which,
in future life, are rarely disturbed by those excite-
ments to the opposite vices, which in various other
countries so fearfiilly prevail. Of such excitements
the one most pregnant with human wretchedness and
vice is doubtless the habit of inebriety ; and this is a
habit almost unknown in Austria. Ardent spirits are
VII.] MORALS. 195
largely consumed in Hungary and along the military
frontier, there producing their usual harvest of crime
and misery ; but in the German states, the potations
of enjo3rment for the lower classes are either a light
thin beer^ or that meagre semi-acid beverage which an
Austrian dignifies with the name of wine, and which
would produce exhilaration in no one but himself.
Drunkenness is scarcely ever seen ; and those who
have traced the effects of this vice, where it is
habitually and largely indulged, in producing almost
every other, and in utterly breaking up all the moral
and social relations of man, will be disposed, from its
absence alone, to infer favourably of Austrian mo-
rality. A second species of excitement, from which,
naturally speaking, the Austrians are comparatively
free, is covetousness or the greediness of gain. They
have imbibed from their childhood not only the prin-
ciples of honesty, but the easy quiet feelings of con-
tentment. Good and evil are so. much intermixed in
this world, that it is vain to seek the one, without ex-
pecting to find with it some portion of the other.
That eager industry, that ambitious anxiety of ad-
vancement in opulence or station, which, where they
prevail, form the mainspring of individual enterprise
and national wealth, — which lead to the highest culti-
vation of the intellect, and the perfecting of all the
useful arts, — bring necessarily with them a selfish train
of feelings and of action, which impel to restlessness
and envy : to deceit and treachery, in the superior
classes of mankind ; and to fraud and robbery, and
o2
196 AUSTRIA. [CH.
crime of all descriptions against property and person,
in those who are below them. From such delin-
quencies as these, the Austrians are peculiarly free ;
as they are also without the high and important ex-
cellencies, whereof these are the alloying conco-
mitants. Crimes of harshness and violence are ex-
ceedingly rare ; while habits of frugality and order,
and a kind of single-minded honesty and simplicity
run through the whole of their character.
A third species of excitement to the passions, from
which the Austrians are exempt, and which I deem
it very important to mention, consists in those politi-
cal contentions and religious controversies which,
in free states, are the necessary results of civil and
religious liberty. Those great objects, the attainment
of truth and the conquest or preservation of freedom,
usually call forth, and sometimes even require, an
ardour of personal temperament, a fierce assumption
of right, and an arrogant denial of candid justice to-
wards opponents, which are the fruitful sources of
variance, discord, and all the unkindly and malignant
passions. The bonds which should attach man to
man are broken in the superior ranks of life, while
rapine and violence mark the furious course of those
beneath. Austria has had her religious wars, though
scarcely her civil conflicts ; but these have long since
ceased. ^Controversial discussion is prohibited An
uniformity of filial submission to the state, and a kind-
liness, perhaps, to speak more correctly, an indiffer-
ence, of sentiment between professors of various
VII.] MORALS. 197
creeds, are engendered by the course of education ;
and thence the absence of that large class of acrimo-
nious feelings so productive, where they exist, of social
disturbance and of individual misery.
To the effects of early training, and the absence
of disturbing excitements, must be added the mild
genius of the civil government, and its unceasing
care for the temporal prosperity and happiness of the
people, as contributing also in no small degree to-
wards the general fulfilment of the social duties.
Good and evil feelings, sentiments, and actions,
have their difiusive, as well as their individual ope-
ration. They have a tendency to reproduce them-
selves, through the extent of that range whereto
their influence may extend ; and of mankind at large
it may be said^ that those who are themselves the
most contented and enjoying, are the most disposed
to create and promote the content and the enjoyment
of others. Vice or crime, when not committed
through absolute malignity, arises from some sense
of deficiency — some want, real or imaginary, mate-
rial or sensual — produced by temporary circum-
stance, or rendered habitual by frequently admitted
repetition. It is ever selfish — seeking personal ac-
quisition or gratification, regardless of the evil done
to others. Proportionate to the vehemence of tempt-
ations from without, and of propensities within, will
be the moral excellence of that individual who
firmly pursues the path of duty: but, as regards
mankind in mass> a nation, will probably be in a
198 AUSTKIA. [CH.
healthier as well as a happier state, in proportioii as
the temptations and propensities are themselves re-
stricted and reduced by institutions and education,
and as popular contentment renders social beflevo*-
lence, in its largest sense, an instinct radier than a
principle.
With regard to the population at large, it is no
pleasing task to touch on defects and deficiendes,
where the amiable and kindly qualities so much pre-
vail ; but the observer of human nature will at once
perceive, that the easiness of character, which I have
described as prevailing among the Austrian people,
cannot be favourable to the exercise of the sterner
virtues. Injury to the person and property of others
will be restricted by want of inclination catiber than
by principle — ^habits of personal s^lf-control will be
little {H*actised, and, perhaps, little valued*— it mutual
indulgence will be granted and reciprocated to what
are termed the weaknesses of our nature, where they
appear to be imtiuged with malignity — ^and the ge-
neral happiness vnll perhaps be rather promoted
and sustained by a sort of habitual good-nature, than
by a sense of moral duty. There is a sophistry in the
human heart, by no means peculiar to Austria, which
finds in habit, circumstance, absence of evil motive,
and other asserted palliatives, an excuse for what
cannot be denied to be deviation from the strictness
of rectitude. Thus fraud and corruption exist in
the various departments of the public service (al-
though not, in my belief, to the extent sometimes
YII.] MOilA;LS. 199
alleged) » promoted aad perpetrated by persons, whose
priyaAe relations of mim with man are still marked
with the usAial chanM^ristics of faith and integrity.
Thiius, too> the harsh and angry tone of mind ex-
hibited ia JBnglieh political and religious discussion,
is coiidemned as &tally hostile to the spirit of Chris-*
tianity^ by a people who view with lenient indulg-
ence tii»08^ aberrations of conduct, which in England
w^ held to upset the very foijwdalslon of Christian
UH^rals. With rega^ ito the extent of nati^Aial im-
morafity involved in, or evidenced by, such aberra^
tions, I would speak with great caution ; for it is to
them that may be emphatically applied the remarks
with which I have commenced the present chapter,
as to the diflGiculty of arriving at just conclusions.
In large cities, licentiousness will unhappily always
exist ; but, as regards the Austrians generally, I be-
lieve the opinions which have been sometimes put
forth to be greatly exaggerated. Public decorum
is far better observed in Vienna, than in London,
Paris, or Berlin ; and those who have contemplated
the results of habits of intoxication, of closely-con-
densed manufacturing communities^ and of those
excitements to early delinquency which are incident
to a population over eager in the pursuit of gain,
will pause before they admit the belief of great com-
parative immorality, in a people where these sources
of evil do not nationally exist. I have before me,
however, two tables, which, with great caution, I
think it right to insert, requesting particular atten-
900
AaSTRIA.
[CK
tion to the remarks by which Ihey are fclloired ^^ for,
otherwise, taken in the abstract, iinef would merely
form in my opinion an exemplification of that docu-
mentary evidence, which is so often dJcolated only
to mislead the judgment. As illustnitions <^ na-
tional morals, I deem them follacious — bot, as bear-
ing on certain great questions of public good, they
may be well deserving the consideration of the
statesman and philanthropist ; and it is mainly with
this view that I am induced to lay them b^Nre the
public.
Proportion of Illegitimate to Legitimate Births in the following
Cities, during the year 1834.
Vienna .
• • (
» 10 illegitiii
date to 12 le
gitii
liutz
• •
• n
19
99
Gratz
• • 1
* »
6
»
Laybach •
• • «
>»
23
99
Trieste and neigbbonrfaood .
»
22
99
Innirpniek
»
22
9»
Prague •
• 99
15
99
Brunn •
99
13
99
Lemberg
99
14
99
Zara
W
27
99
Milan
• 91
28
99
Venice •
99
62
99
vil]
MORAL8.
201
Proportion iflUegitimaie io hegHmaU Births, in the ProviaGtt»
during the tfoar 1834.
Austria, Lower
AuBtriB^ Upper
Stpriia • •
Carintlua and Cainiola
Littoral
Tyrol •
Bohemia
Moravia and Silesia
Gallicia
Dalmatia
Lombardy
Venetian Provinces
Transylvania •
Military Frontier
1 illegitimate
in 4 births.
»
5
99
99
3
99
99
5
99
99
13
99
99
17
99
J>
16
99
99
1
99
99
12
99
99
2
99
99
25
99
99
3
9»
99
36
99
99
55
99
Whole Empire, exclusive of Hungary
99
99
A mere glance at the above tables suffices to shove,
that, as registers of real morality, they mu^t be eis
roneous. According to them, we should pronounce
Venice to be the most correct of the Austrian cities;
Vienna twice as much so as Gratz ; and the military
frontier, in a considerable portion of which crime* is
of a ferocious character, and only restrained by the
severest discipline, would appear the most moral
district of the empire. We should suppose a state
of things, in which, were an actual defect of moral
* In Slavonia and Croatia.
202 AUSTRIA. [en.
prindple the cause of sxtch whokmle irre^guluities,
it would be scarcely possible for society to hold toge-
ther ; a estate of things certainly incompatible with
the great annual increase of number^^ the regular
orderly habits^ and the social affections, which «re
seen in the population of Austria. We must seek
other circumstances to accoimt for these effects ; and
we shall find them, to a considerable degree, in the
two ^raod impediments to marriage, arising, the one
from a well^ntended, but, perhaps, erroneous legis-
latioB, the oth^ from defective institutions. The
first of these, is the prohibition to the parish priest to
celebrate any marriage between parties unprovided
with certificates of education^ and of what is termed
moralitf/y meaning ther^y general good conduct, and
orderly quiet demeanour ; as also rea8<Hiald6 proof
of sufficient worldly means, or prospects to provide
for a family. The minister waiving these certificates
subjects himself to great risks, and in some cases to
a heavy personal responsibility.* Now, the want of
education-certificates alone would operate as a bar to
marriage, in regard to probably a mmety of those
individuals now marriageable; for it appears by the
tables given in Chapter V., that, even of the present
* It has been stated to me, that in Bavaria, the minister cele-
brating a marriage between parties unpoeaessed of adequate
worldly means, renders himself liable U> the expense of prpyiding
for the^offispring. I have found no edict to this effect in Austria;
but it has been suggested to me, that in some cases the principle
of it has been practically applied.
VII. ] MORALS. 203
race of children, two-fifths do not attend schools ; and
this too, although there is no doubt that education
has of late years considerably increased. A further
number would be incapacitated by poverty, and that
especiaUy in the poorer districts; while, as to the
insubordinate imd disorderly, they would be excluded
fn^n the chance of being ever reclaimed by the ties
of marriage. For the want of education, it is true
that where schools do not exist, and perhaps even
in some other cases, dispensing certificates would be
obtained ; but, as I have had occasion befc^'e to ob»
serve, the habits of a people are moulded in many
points more by the actual provisions of a law, than by
its practical enforcement: and the general under-
standing that education-certificates are required, mil
be far more operative on conduct, than the conjecture
that such certificates might perchance be dispensed
with. The second cause to which I have alluded
consists in the necessity, on feudal properties, that
marriages should receive the lord's consent. He is
morally aud practically, if not legally, the preserver
from starvation of thd paupers on his domains ; and
hence, on general as well as feudal principles, it may
be not witiiout advantage that he should possess some
check over those unions from which they may arise.
This preventive authority will no doubt be very
cautiously exerted, and rather, probably, by his agents
than himself; but licence will be at times refused to
improvident unions, while the police of the estate will
endeavour to castigate or exile the disorderly.
204 AUSTRIA. [CH.
Not in Austria only, but in various continental
states, similar impediments are thrown in the way of
marriage by a well-intended legislation; and in
all of them, as a too natural result, unkms will be
formed without those ordinances, which caQm>t be
obtained. Much of the immorality attaching to such
unions maybe rather chargeable on the legblators than
the parties ; but still the products of them will appear
most unfavourably on tables such as those I have
exhibited, and their numbers will tend to produce
veiy erroneous impressions. In France the law is,
in practice, although not in words, nearly as restric-
tive as in Germany, and only dissimilar probably in
the extent of its illegitimate productions, from causes
which it is not fitting to explain. No person ^ere
can marry without producing certificates of their
birth ; of the consent of their parents (whatever be
their own ages), or of their decease ; or, if the parents
be alive and unconsenting, then of three demands for
their consent having been made at certain intervals,
by a notary in due form of law. The larger portion
of young men who flock into Paris, Lyons, and other
great cities, from the distant provinces, in search of
employ, and who in after-life would wish to marry,
may seek in vsin for the necessary certificates. They
know not, probably, where their parents are to be
found, or where their own birth is registered : or, if
they do, they are perhaps unable to bear the expense
of procuring the documents; and hence, with little
fault of their own, they may be drawn into a state of
VII.] MORALS. 205
life very un&vourable to tables of morality. So great
indeed is this evil, that t remember to have heard a
chadty sermon at the church of St. Roch, in Paris,
when the ardbbishop was present and gave the bene-
diction, the object of which was to support the funds
of a society especially formed for defraying the ex-
penses of the poor in procuring certificates of mar-
riage.
To these two causes, others must however be add-
ed, arising, not from the severity of the law, but from
what may rather be considered its erroneous indul-
gence- The right of illegitimate children to the in-
heritance of their mother's property, gives them in
itself, a social character, superior to that to which, as
"nuUius filii," they are doomed in England; but far
more important in the view of public morality is their
actual legitimization, by the subsequent marriage of
their parents, or by the grant of the crown. This
last mode of relief, indeed, the grant of the crown,
will be principally resorted to in cases where> the
mother being dead, the father has no longer power
to celebrate a marriage : but while both parents live,
the remedy is even in their own hands,^ and the faci-
lity of its adoption has unquestionably a very immoral
effect. Neither are we yet arrived at the conclusion
of those encouragements, — for such, I fear, they must
be termed, — which laws and institutions hold forth for
the increase of spurious offspring. We must turn
our eyes to those institutions of " Maternity," found-
ed by Joseph in his zeal against infanticide ; and of
206 AUSTRIA. [CH.
which some one or more exists at present in every
proviiicial capital, and in most of the larger towns.
By night and by day, the gates of these institutions
are open to the virtuous and the guilty ; and if the
parent be enabled to make a payment of a few
shillings daily for her lodging and medical assist-
ance, she is enregistered as of the '* first class/' has a
separate apartment, and continues as long or short a
time as she may choose, unknown even to her imme^
diate attendants. By direction of the impeilal edict
regulating these institutions, she may arrive, remain,
and depart, with her countenance masked and her
person concealed, subjected to no inquiry. She
merely gives her real name and address in a sealed
envelope, to be examined only in case of her death,
but which is otherwise returned to her unopened on
her departure ; and she may either remove her off-
spring at pleasure, or, for a sum of less than 2h ster-
ling, she may leave it for ever to the charge of the
establishment. It must be a matter of serious doubt
whether arrangements such as these, however arising
from the most humane motives, be not too often direct
incentives to vice* May not the facility of conceal-
ment which shrouds the disgrace of the erring female,
and protects the bosoms of her guiltless family from
many a bitter pang, be too probably an enticement for
the commission of delinquencies which safety would
not otherwise have dared to hazard ? May not the
harshness of our social law, which bars the door of
restoration to her who is once known to have offended.
VII.] MORALS. 207
be more cthan eounterbalamced by the temptation to
offence which results from the hope of that door re>*
maining ever open? In justice, however, to the
establishments <^ which we are now treating, it i»
requisite to enter somewhat further into their orga-
nization ; and to show that if, in some cases, they
may be liable to the suspicion of evil, thqf are like-
wise in others not unproductive <^ good. To parents
unable to meet the expenses I have mentioned, and
who, consequently, are not of the '' first class," the
same indulgence is not extended. Apartments,, dif-^
fering in the degree of accommodation, are allowed
to those who make smaller payments, and there are
public wards for gratuitous patients, who are admitted
only on the recommendation of the parochial minister,
or some other person in authority ; but of the whole
of these, forming the sec(md, third, and fourth classes,
the names and situation are known and recorded ;
those not gratuitously admitted are required to re*
move their offspring with themselves; and those. who
are admitted as gratuitous patients^ are bound to
remain for a certain period afterwards as nurses and
attendants of those helpless infants, of whom it may
be hoped that the greater part are the progeny, not
of vice, but of honest poverty. To every house of
'' Maternity" is attached an " Orphan and Foundling
Asylum^'' of which the inmates are of a very mixed
character. They consist partly of those born in the
house of Maternity, either of pauper parents or of
those enregistered in the first class^ who have made
208 AUSTRIA. [CH.
the required deposit ; of children not bom in the
house, on deposit by the parent of a larger fixed sum ;
of illegitimate children of mothers bringing cerdfi-
cates of poverty, and declaring the name of the £Bktfaer ;
and, finally, of pauper chUdren, born in marriage,
who are recommended for reception by the para-
chial minister or armen-vater . The system of admis-
sion by the wheel or the box, as practised in France,
is in no case adopted in Austria. No child is re-
ceived without the adequate pecuniary payment, or
on mere personal declaration of poverty ; and those
who are found exposed, and whose parents cannot
be traced, become a charge on the fimds of the parish
or district. The usual practice in regard to those
young creatures, is to commit them to the charge of
the cottagers and peasants in the country around, on
an annual payment, which is continued until they
have completed their eighth year ; after which they
either return to the Orphan Asylum, to be there sup-
ported until placed in domestic or other service ; or,
which is very usually the case, are transferred to the
permanent adoption of their foster parents. A pre-
ference is always given to the real mother, if she
desires the charge on the allotted remuneration;
otherwise, foster parents are very readily found to
ofier, partly for the value of the allowance, and partly
in compliance with an opinion very much inculcated,
that the care of these foundlings is a higUy merito-
rious act of religion. The general tenderness of the
Austrian character, more especially if combined with
VII.] MORALS. 209
the religioas daAtinient to which I have just alluded,
causes the children to be in most cases kindly and
aflfectionately treated. As they grow up they become
useful in the field or the workshop, for which objects
their adopting father has the same parental power
over the disposal of their labour, as over that of liis
proper ofiis]^ng ; but precautions are still taken to
guard against oppression and abuse. The parochial
minister is the special guardian of the whole of these
located foundlings ; he musters them before him at
least every six months ; reports on their condition and
treatment to the heads of the department ; provides
for their religious training ; and is a necessary party
to every contract or agreement in which they may be
interested, until they have arrived at the age of dis-
cretion. Within the orphan house is usually a limited
number of children of rather a superior grade to
those which have been thus far considered, and who
form the pupils of an industrial school which is held
within the walls. These are the children of poor but
well-conducted parents, admitted on the recommend-
ation of certain functionaries, with the approbation
of a special referee who is bound to inquire into the
circumstances of their condition. They are gratui-
tously received, supported, and trained, and, after
being duly instructed, are apprenticed out to some
mechanical trade.
The whole tenor of the Austrian institutions evinces
the reciprocal duties of parent and child to be well
observed. These duties harmonize with the affec-
VOL. II. P
210 AUSTRIA. [CH.
tioaateQess of the natioiial character. They are in-
stilled hy education, and are enforced by law. As every
individiial falling into destitution or indigence may
legally compel support or aid from his nearest relatir^
not only the husband and the wife, but the &tber and
mother, the brother and sister, become mutually
bound to aaost each other ; and, as has been diown
in a former chapter, the child omitting this duty is
not only subjected to criminal punishment, but to the
forfature of his pfiichitheil. The obligations of the
marriage vow, it may be feared, are less correctly
fulfilled. That connubial irregularities are so fre-
quent as has been sometimes represented, I believe
to be an error: at all events, among the popu-
lation not resident in the larger cities : but the
principles of German law, as practised, not in
Austria only, but in the other parts of the ci-devant
German empire, are not perhaps very favourable
to conjugal morality. The parties form their union
too much on the footing of a mere mutual contract ;
and on a principle of equal independence which cha-
racterises alike its original formation and all its sub-
sequent bearings. Not only may every unmarried
female, not possessed .of property in her own right,
lawfully claim support from her parents, or, in case
of their decease, from other relatives; but on her
desiring to marry, she is, if arrived at proper age,
legally entitled to claim a dower, consistent with their
circumstances, from those who were bound to support
her in her single state. In case of refusal of consent.
VII.] MORALS. 211
a tribunal may be called on to investigate the grounds
of such refusal, and on its opinion of their inade-
quacy, still to decree the dower. Special settlements
may be made with special provisions ; but, as a general
practice, the dower, together with any addition which
may be made to it by succession or otherwise, remains,
under the name of the hdrathsguty the separate pro-
perty of the wife during the marriage. Its usufruct
is in the husband (subject to any special stipulations)
for their joint benefit while they live together : but on
the death of the wife it passes to her heirs, or is
disposable by her will. It is not responsible for the
husband's separate debts ; and in case of disagree-
ment, the court wiQ usually decree to the wife its full
separate use, respect being had to such arrangements
as may be suitable for the support and the education,
of children. Very few probably are the cases in
which recourse is actually had to judicial interference,
either in regard to the arrangement or the enjoyment
of the heirathsgut ; but the conduct of individuals in
all countries is moulded by the principles, rather than
by the enforcement, of law ; and although institutions
may be formed with immediate reference to the higher
classes who possess property, yet the spirit of these
institutions will pass down to those below them who
have none. Thus, with high and low, a notion of
mutual equality pervades the marriage contract ; and
independence in civil right may lead too naturally to
independence in conjugal conduct, although the
convenience of a pailicipation in the stock of mutual
p2
212 AUSTRIA. [CH.
funds may cause the continuance of a nominal union
no longer sanctioned by the confidence of affecticHi.
But there exists another species of immorality, for
such too it must be called, in the great facility of
divorce which is granted by German law. It is a
privilege enjoyed solely by the protestants. Within
the pale of the Roman Catholic communion, marriage
is a sacramental obligation only to be dissolved by a
special act of papal authority ; wluch, as regards the
Roman Catholic world at large, is always refused :
but were this even granted, it would be of no legal
avail in Austria. The Austrian civil code specifi-
cally enacts, that the union of Roman Catholics can
only terminate by death ; while, in regard to the pro-
testant subjects of the emperor,* it concedes the per-
mission of divorce on any of the following grounds :
1st, where either party has been condemned for crime
to fifteen years' imprisonment; 2ndly, when either has
abandoned the other, without his abode being known,
and without appearing to answer a judicial sununons
within the period of one year from the date of pro-
clamation ; 3rd, in cases of dangerous injury inflicted
on the life or health of the other ; 4th, in those of
repeated ill-treatment ; 5th, at the request of both
parties on the ground of " unconquerable aversion."
* This di£ferent application of law is a very sufficient reason
among others, for the strictness of the rule that every Austrian
subject shall be enregistered as of some specific religion, from
which he shall not be allowed to pass to any other without certain
preliminary formalities.
Ylli] MORALS. 213
It 18 obvious that this last condition of divorce places
the duration of the marriage contract entirely at the
disposal of the parties ; and we are bound in fairness
to admit, under such a condition of circumstances^
that connubial incorrectness may be more frequent
in Romish than in protestant communities without
any greater inconstancy of disposition. The Roman--
ists are compelled to remain in ostensible union ; but
the protestants, when tired of each other, provided
they have sufficient means to defray the small legal ex-
penses, may make their new arrangements at will ; and
thus it naturally occurs, that divorces are astonishingly
numerous at Berlin and in ceiiAin other reformed
cities; while at Vienna and Munich, where protestants
are few, they are scarcely ever heard of. Even in
mix^ed marriages the right to liberation is enjoyed by
the protestant partner, although it is inoperative as to
the other. Among my own acquaintances in Ger-
many, I knew a case, wherein the lady, being Lutheran,
had successively espoused three husbands all living at
the same time ; while the gentleman first in the order
of husbands, although of princely rank and title,
being a Romanist, could obtain no divorce ; but was
compelled ever after to remain in the bonds of that
marriage which was still, on him, both legally and
sacramentally binding.
Taking now a general review of the Austrian
moral character, its sobriety and honesty, its tone of
order contentment and peace, its mildness and bene-
214 AUSTRIA. [CH.
yoleilce ; and connecting therewith the class of faults
implied by the tables inserted in an earlier part of
this chapter, candour may be not disinclined to
ascribe its better qualities to education and example,
and its prominent apparent defects, in some measure
at leasts to the legislative institutions of the country.
Still it must be admitted that the excellencies of the
Austrian are more of a negative than of a positive
description. They will be held in little estimation
by the moralist^ who regards virtue only as an active
principle, evinced in the control of the evil tenden-
cies of our nature, and in positive exerticm for the
general good. They will be highly prized, on the
contrary, by him who values chiefly the milder and
kindlier affections of the heart, and who considers
that the well-being of man derives more detriment
from the disturbances of vice than benefit from the
energies of virtue.
VIII.] 216
CHAPTER VIII.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT.— Preliminary Observations— Le^/a-
tion — Proyincial Assemblies ; their composition and functions
in the German and Italian States : also of the Hungarian Diet
Legislative edicts and rescripts of the Sovereign. — Executive Go-
vernment. Nature and system of the principal Departments at
Vienna — Civil admixiistrations in the Provinces — Graduated
organization of the system. — Moral peculiarities — Union of
Education, Affectictnsy and Interests in support of the State,
explained — Personal character of the Princes and of the Depo-
sitaries of power — Number of Civil Servants and of Pensioners
— German Bureaucracy — Preparation of Statistical Tables.
«
In the present condition of Europe, a really auto-
cratic monarchy, a state of ride conducted on the
mere personal inclinations and caprices of the sove-
reign, is a physical impossibility. In every country
there is a force of public opinion, to which the sove-
reign must conform, or he will be overpowered in his
attempts to oppose it. As education and civil rights
are more or less extended, so will be the number of
individuals from whose aggregate sentiments this
public opinion is derived. It may reside in whole
masses of population ; or in peculiar classes, who
exercise, a preponderant power over the rest. It may
be wielded in some countries l)y the army — in others
216 AUSTRIA. [oh.
by the church — in others again l^ the proprietors of
the soil, the community of traders and manufacturers,
or by two or more of these conjointly ; but neither at
Constantinople, Petersburg, nor Vienna, any more than
in London or in Paris, can the sovereign conduct his
government on principles at variance with the senti-
ments and feelings of the majority of his subjects ; or,
what may be the same in result, at variance with those
of the one or more influential classes, by whom the
sentiments and feelings of that majority are created
and directed.
In the account given of the Austrian education,
will have been seen the aim and the success of the
government (as regards the German states) in train-
ing public opinion to a conformity with its own prin-
ciples of internal policy ; in establishing in the public
mind a reverential submission to authority in state
and church, a confidence in its wisdom, and a tranquil
contentment under its paternal sway. In tracing the
march of the government, we observe a continuing
anxiety to confirm these early feelings and impres-
sions. Theories of political amelioration, when not
emanating from the government itself, are strenuously
repressed ; while suggestions of improvement in the
material well-'being of the people are encouraged and
adopted. Private interest, through a thousand rami-
fications, is enlisted in support of public loyalty ; and
the affections are engaged by the simple demeanour
and unaffected benevolence of the imperial princes.
Under the Austrian sceptre, there are, properly
VIII.] CIVIL GOVBRNMENT. 217
speaking (except in Hungary)> no popular repre-
sentative bodies: but in every province there is a
provincial council, termed the StSnde, or States,
comprised of a considerable number of the principal
inhabitants. The composition of the Stande varies
in different parts of the empire, and rests on laws
and customs derived from the middle ages. In all
the German provinces, however, with the exception
of Tyrol, these Stande or States are composed of
members representing, or supposed to represait, the
interests of the different free classes of which society
in the feudal condition is understood to exist. Of these
there are four: — 1st, the clergy, ox Pr&laten^tand,
or Geistlichkeit ; 2ndly, the high nobility, or Her^
renstandy consisting of princes, counts, and barons ;
3rdly, the lower nobility, or Ritterstand, being the
untitled nobles ; 4thly, the citizens, or BurgerHand.
The number and the qualifications of the memberji^
vary in every state ; but, waiving smaller distinctiitms^
we may take the following observations as of general
application. Of the first class, the greater number
of members sit in virtue of benefices, to which they
are appointed by the crown. Such, in Bohemia,
are the archbishop of Prague^ and his three suffragan
bishops, the dean of Prague, two grand ms^ers of
religious orders, &c. &c. ; in Gallicia, the Romish
and the Greek archbishops, and their respective suf*-
fragans, certain mitred abbots, &c. ; in Styria, the
two bishops, the dean of Gratz, &c. ; in Camiola,
the three bishops, one dean, the parish priest of
218 AUSTRIA. [CU.
Klageniiirt, &c. ; and so on in the odmr provinces.
To these fixed 8]Hiitoal members are added a certain
number of others, deputed by the diapteis of cathe*
drals and other clerical corporal]on& Hie Meeand
and third classes ctmtain members partly hereditary
and territorial, and partly elected. Many sit in ri^t
of thrir entailed baronial estates, others as die diie&
of certain ancient fiunilies, some as holding specific
offices, and the rest are made up of deputies elected
nominally by certain individuals of their own order,
in whom the right of election rests. The fourth
class, the Burg^rstand, are the deputies of the cities
and towns, who enjoy the privilege of '* sending
members to parliament" by royal charter, and in
which the right of election is exercised in practice by
those close corporations, the constitution of which has
been formerly explained. The number of corpora*
tions thus qualified is very various, and it is generally
the more relatively great, in proportion as the crown
has gained the greater ascendancy over the feudal
aristocracy. Thus, the towns which send deputies
are, in Upper Austria with Salzburg, thirty-nine ; in
Styria, thirty-seven; in Lower Austria, nineteen;
and in Garinthia, fifteen : while in Moravia th^r
number is but seven ; in Bohemia, four ; and in Gal-
licia only one. A slight peculiarity exists in Tyrol,
where the higher and lower nobility form one order
only, and where a fourth order in the Stande consists
of deputies sent from the class of peasants, or non-
noble holders of land.
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 219
The Stande meet at least once a^year, and form but
one chamber^ without distinction of classes ; tjie reso-
lutions being carried by a simple majority of votes.
The [Hresident is either the governor of the provuicC)
or some other high officer of the crown : bxiA no sit-
ting can be hdd but in his presence, or that of a royal
commissii»ier, whose sanction is necessary to all the
proceedings. The session commences with the con-*
sideration of certain royal propositions, which consist,
in part, of the demand annually made by the crown
for the portion of direct revenue to be raised in each
province. The sufq>ly being voted, or, to speak
more correctly, the demand for it having been en-
registered, they apportion its quantum among the dif*
ferent districts ; and, through the agency of a per-
manent committee, which sits for this and other pur-
poses during tlie xecess, they superintend the col-
lection in a manner which will be explained in a
future chapter on the subject of revenue. They then
pass to matters of local interest, either as recom-
mended by the crown, or suggested by any individual
member. Of legislative power they have none ; but
their administrative faculties, varying in different pro-
vinces, are always important. They have, generally
speaking, a control over the application and direction;
by the governor or the government, of the numerous
local establishments, revenues, and endowments for
provincial purposes. They make representations on
all matters of local concern ; and these representa-
320 AUSTRIA. [CH.
tioiis, coming from such influential bodks, must ne^
cessarily have considerable weight at Vienna.
It will thus be seen diat very Uttle of the populw
principle enters into the composition of the Stande.
They are rather councils <^ the crown^ than free deli-
berative chambers; for even the elected members,
those of the lower nobles, or the towns, are in fiict
(through the medium of recommendation) ncMninees
of the government, or persons who receive its sanction
for their admission to the assembly. Still the general
absence of political party in the German provinces re-
lieves the government from the inducement of select-
ing the members from classes of distinct or exclusive
opinions. They are rather taken according to their
influential position, as land-owners, farmers, miners,
merchants, &c., and they thus enjoy a certain, some-
times a great, degree of public confidence ; while they
are very useful subordinates of the government,
whose policy it is (retaining to itself the faculty of
sanctioning every measure) to govern the provinces
as much as possible through the agency of these local
bodies.
In the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom a somewhat
more popular i^stem prevails. Each of the two pro-
vinces has its assembly, with attributes and powers
similar to those of the German StSnde; but their in-
ternal composition is wholly difierent. They have
neither ecclesiastical members, nobles sitting in right
of birth or property, nor deputies of close corpora-
Vlll.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 221
tions. The members are all elected ; but through the
medium of a double, or rather a triple, stage of
Section. The two great classes— of Contadini^ the
proprietors of land, and Cittadifdy the inhabitants of
towns — are the primary electors, the suffrage depend-
ing on the payment of a certain sum in annual taxes.
These primary electors vote in, from their general
body, a council of election, the members of which
must possess a higher property qualification than is
requisite for the primary elector himself. The coun-
cil of election nominates, by vote, from the members
of its own body, a certain number of candidates, and
from these candidates the crown selects those who
shall act as members of the Provincial Assembly;
with the power, however, in its discretion, of refusing
them all, and of ordering a new selection.
The composition and faculties of the Provincial
Stande, at least in the German provinces, reminds us
much of those of our own parliament in its early
history. The doctrine still holds in Austria, that
taxation is the right of the crown, but it is a right to
be exercised through atid by the local assemMies.^
The crown does not ask a supply, but intimates the
amount of its wants, which it becomes then the office
of the Stande to raise, according to the principles of
existing law — ^that law, however, emanating not from
themselves, but from the imperial cabinet. They can
thus, as yet, charge no money-bills with petitions of
grievance. Their discussions are rarely public ; and,
if attempted on subjects unpleasing to the crown.
222 AUSTRIA. [CH.
HTould be at once repressed by the imperial commis-
sioner. They have in appearance very little of inde-
pendent action ; but still they have, in practice, much
of real power, and are organs through which the
public voice must reach the government. The mem-
bers of the Stande are necessarily in communication
out of doors with all classes of the people. They are
themselves persons holding a large stake in the local
prosperity. When the existence of some grievance,
or the expediency of some improvement, pervades the
mind of the assembly, it is usual for some one or more
of the members to be deputed on the subject to
Vienna ; and it is evident that the representatives of
aristocratical bodies so combined must be influential,
often even authoritative, with a government which,
like that of Austria, so much dreads internal dis-
affection, and so much rests its power on the social
subordination, and on the cohesive attachments, of the
various classes of its subjects.
The adoption of the representative system for all
the German sovereignties was chiefly advocated at
the Congress of Vienna by Lords Castlereagh and
CJancarty on behalf of Ekigland, and by the Prince
de Talleyrand as ambassador of Louis XVIII., who,
during his residence in England, had imbibed a very
strong predilection for constitutional government. It
was afterwards effectively urged by the Emperor Alex-
ander, who was then, it is conceived, influenced by
the Abbe de Pradt. The general principle was ac-
knowledged, and has been acted on in nearly all the
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 223
German states ; although, in the smaller prindpalities,
where the influence of the sovereign and of the nohles
is comparatively greater than in the larger ones, it
necessarily takes the form, or rather the practice, of
an aristocratical oligarchy. Prussia, '' from seeming
evil still educing good," took advantage of the con-
fusion and misery introduced among her nohle land-
holders by the French invasions, to abolish, by the
strong arm of force, the most oppressive of the feudal
institutions ; and, under the ministers Stein and Har-
denberg, gave a new character to the rights de-
pendent on the tenure of land, although one still very
unequal and imperfect. The dread of a greater evil
pending over their country and themselves, wrung
from the noble, landlords an unwilling submission to
these innovations ; and from that time more has been
done to liberalize the Prussian institutions, than those
of perhaps any country in Europe. Still there is in
Prussia no aggregate popular representation ; and the
excuse usually ^ven for this non-performance of
an admitted engagement, is the extreme difficulty of
organizing a system which should embrace provinces
so remote from each other, po distinct in language,
habits, rehgion and laws. The same diScuUy might
be felt in Austria ; and a further one also, arising
from the social peculiarities of the population in its
largest provinces. If property were made the basis
of representation, the effect, it is argued, would be
(property and nobility being in those provinces so
much united) to establish for ever all existing aristo-
224 AUSTRU. [CH.
cratical privilege, against both the crown and the peo-
ple. If the principle of population were adopted, the
effect would either be the same, inasmuch as the
power of the lords would command the votes : or,
were it the reverse of this, were a deliberative body
of robotters or of their real representatives assembled,
they would too probably upset all property, and enter
on a revolutionary course, which the government
would have neither the means nor the knowledge to
control. It must be added, too, that on this subject
the crown acts and feels with the proceedings of the
Hungarian diet before its eyes. That diet is a purely
aristocratical body, omnipotent in securing to the
nobles all feudal privilege, and in effecting their ex-
emption from all direct taxation. It consists of two
chambers, and the lower one is elective, composed of
deputies both of counties and of towns ; but of these
deputies the county members, themselves all noble,
and chosen by nobles, have alone the power of voting,
the deputies of the towns being merely allowed to sit
and to speaky but to exercise no other influence, in
any decision ; although, as far as my knowledge of
the Hungarian corpus juris enables me to judge, the
town members have an equal right to vote with their
colleagues from the counties. The question, however,
is one of much peculiarity and intricacy^ and cannot
be properly understood without detailed explanations.
The legislative power, which, as well as the exe-
cutive, centres in the sovereign, is exercised partly
in the form of original edicts, and partly in that of
viil] civil government. 225
rescripts, issued in reply to applications addressed by
any branch of the general or provincial administra-
tions. These edicts and rescripts, having been in
the first instance forwarded to the various provincial
landesstelles, and to the other functionaries whom
they may immediately concern, are annually printed
in a convenient size for general use ; and in that form
I have in my possession the whole of them from the
commencement of the reign of Francis in 1792.*
They are very numerous, and in many points very
minute ; for the crown leaves as little as possible of
discretional power to subordinate functionaries — very
simple and clear in their language — and through
those of a more important character, especially such
as relate to public education and other points, inte-
resting the mass of the people, they are characterised
by a sort of affectionate benevolence, combined with
practical wisdom, which can hardly be read without
a feeling of admiration. It is from these documents
that the real character. of the reign of Francis must
be ascertained.
The eccecutive government of Austria is conducted
by the instrumentality of councils at the head of
each department, resembling in character our Boards
of Treasury and Admiralty, and transmitting their in-
structions through a series of authorities below, each
* I mention this circumstance only to evince, although perhaps
.unnecessarily, that the laws hy which the Austrian people are
governed are perfectly open and accessible to all.
VOL. II. Q
3S& AUSTRIA. [CH.
dependent on its immediate superior. Until long
idler the commencement of the present century^ these
councils acted independently the one of the other,
each being supreme in its respective branch of ser«
vice ; and hence resulted a want of unity and of com-
bined efficiency, an essential weakness in the whole
machine, which theories of absolute power and arrays
of numerical force in vain attempted to disguise ; and
which led to most of the disasters in the wars against
France. Taught at length by mournful experience,
Francis constituted under himself a superior authority,
which should extend alike over every department of
the state ; at the head of which he placed the Prince
de Mettemich, who thus acquired functions and powers
which enabled him, in conjunction with the Count
Kollowrat, the Minister of the Interior, to infuse an
order and an energy into the whole machinery of the
government, which had never before existed. The
present emperor has found additional motives, in his
own precarious state of health, for continuing the
practice adopted by his father. He has formed a
cabinet council, consisting of his uncle the Archduke
Louis, his brother and heir-apparent the Archduke
Francis Charles, and the two ministers, Mettemich
and Kollowrat ; to whose decisions every brandb of the
service is rendered subordinate, and who thus at the
present moment wield in fact all the power of the
monarchy. Subject to the cabinet decisions, the
immediate direction of the internal administration
rests with Count Kollowrat, and the charge of its
VIII. ] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 227
foreign policy with the Prince de Metternich ; but
the old system of councils is still preserved, — ^that of
waT;, finance, religion, education, &c. &c*— each of
which has its chancellor or president, who may be
termed the minister of the respective department, but
who has no voice in the supreme cabinet council.
In the provinces, three great branches of authority
exist, — ^the civil, the financial, and the military, — ^mainly
independent of each other, although mutually co-ope-
rating for their respective objects when occasion may so
require. Each milUary district, of which (if I mistake
not) the empire contains fourteen, has a general officer
in command, whose staff and other fimctionaries, ap-
pointed by the crown, form his permanent council,
and who acts under the orders of the Council of War
of Vienna. Each financial district has its chief of
finance, with a similarly appointed council, who
corresponds with the head of the department at
Vienna, and who has the control of everything con-
nected with the collection and expenditure of the
general revenue within die districtual limits. Eadi
province has its landessteUcy consisting of a civil
governor, and a council of a certain number of mem-
bers, who exercise all the functions of civil govern-
ment, with the exception of those which depend on
the financial or military branches. Many of the
functions of the landesstelle have been mentioned in
preceding chapters. Acting in every step under
oid/^s from Vienna, it has the general administra-
tion of the religious, charitable, educational, and
q2
82& AUSTRIA. [CH.
other provincial funds; the direction of the police,
mad the control of all civil establishments; and that
kind of real power, which consists in its having a
right of veto on the appointment and the proceedings
of all functionaries and public bodies, single and cor-
porate, lay and ecclesiastical, and judicial to a great
extent as regards the class of misdemeanors. To
specify these functions in greater detail would be
merely to repeat the notices which have already been
u)ade in the chapters on Feudality, Jurisprudence,
Education, and Religion. They are in every branch,
excepting those of war and finance, the agents and
representatives of the executive power of the crown ;
but on scarcely any point have they a faculty of action
without previous communication with the authorities
around the person of the emperor. That which the
landesstelle is in the province, the kreisampt is in
each of the districts into which a province is divided.^
It consists of a kreis-hauptmann^ or districtual chief,
who has also his council of local government ; and,
subordinate to the kreisampti every township or vil-
lage has a commissary or civil authority, who is en-
charged, on the plan explained in the former chap-
ters, with its immediate concerns.
Such is the organization of this very remarkable
government. In eveiy branch wherein a government
can be said to hold duties towards subjects — in dispo-
sitions for religious instruction, civil education, the
administration of justice, the provision of medical aid
for the sick, and eleemosynary support for the desti-
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 229
tute — :as also for the collection of the public revenue,
and the repression of public disorder — a series of
auth(H*ities exists, descending in regular gradation
from the sovereign on the throne to the humblest
country village — each rendering statements, in the
fullest detail, to its immediate superior, and acting
under its instructions ; and thus, by a perpetual cir-
culation of reports and directions between the im-
perial metropolis and the extreme ramifications of
the provinces, producing, as it is conceived, a unity
and an energy of action through the whole political
machine.
Of the administration of civil justice I have offered
no specific details, as the organization of the tribunals
is analogous in general character to that of the crimi-
nal courts, which has been explained. They consti-
tute a gradation of judicial authorities, from the
primary village court, through that of the district
and the province, up to the ultimate tribunal at
Vienna : — the faculty of appeal upwards being limited
by the amount and the nature of the property in
litigation ; but a power of supervision being in almost
every case vested in some superior authority, over the
proceedings of those below. The evidence and the
pleadings are written : the whole of which are conso-
lidated and embodied by a functionary of the court
into a general report, on which the judges form and
pronounce the sentence. The expenses of every stage,
including the fees of counsel, are strictly defined ;
and the usual zeal of over-regulation exhibited, with
a view to prevent both procrastination and expense
230 AUSTRIA. [CH.
But regulations of this kind seldom answer the full
intended effect ; and> as in every country of continental
Europe with which I am acquainted^ complaints are
sometimes heard in Austria^ of the delays and the
venality of justice. It is a subject, like that of na-
tional morality, whereon a stranger can rarely have
any personal knowledge ; and one wherdn he is ex-
ceedingly liable to be deceived by gossiping narra-
tions, either from persons as ignorant as himself, or
from unsuccessful suitors, who are too ready to com-
plain of the fancied contrivances which have procured
the triumph of their opponents. Allowing much
therefore for such exaggerations, still, wherever the
judges admit the parties in a suit to private conver-
sation on its merits, — and this practice is, I believe,
adopted in every country of Europe, except England*
— suspicion must attach to judicial purity. Where
money may not be offered, bribery under a thousand
other forms may be substantially administered ; and,
even unconsciously to himself, the magistrate may
become guilty of the grossest perversions of justice,
by giving sentence under feelings of favour or hosti-
lity, which these private conferences could alone have
engendered. As to the law's delay, it has been a
subject of lamentation in every age and every
country; and such it will probably remain, while
civilization continues to complicate and perplex the
mutual relations of man with man, and Mobile the ex-
perience of human fallibility imposes the necessity of
* Of Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, I am ignorant, as also of
some of the smaller states of Germany.
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 231
^ gradation of appeals. It is in vain that codification
attempt^ to fix on law the character of universal pre*
cision; or that zeal for improvement rings the
changers backwards and forwards between stationary
and ambulatory courts. In England the personal
purity of the judges is unsullied even by a breath of
suspicion, and facts are decided on by the verdict of
a jury : but are th^se palladia of right, immensely
valuable though they be, an adequate compensation
for the endless delays, the anxious uncertainties, and
the ruinous expenses, which in so many thousands of
cases efiect a real denial of justice? In France, my
personal knowledge has made me acquainted with
two cases, in one of which I was myself interested,
wherein the judges not only formed their decision, as
to the judgment they would give, upon mere private
representation, before any of the argument^ were
heard in court, but one of the judges communicated,
as a friend, to one of the parties in each case, what
that decision would be, in order to give him the oppor-
tunity of a compromise or arrangement. In a third
case, within my knowledge, now pending in France,
one of the parties, himself an English barrister, and
as such acquainted with English courts of equity, has
been tormented with hearings and rehearings, issues
and appeals, for more than ten years ; and he feel-
ingly expresses his envious admiration of the compa-
rative cheapness and despatch of an English suit in
Chancery. Of Austrian proceedings, I am happily
without any personal experience; but my general
impression is, that had we not before us those of
232 AUSTRIA. [CH.
England and France, they would be eomidered dila^
tory ; and they are always liable to the general sus-
picion arising from the private communications be->
tween judge and suitor. From the information,
however, which I have derived from natives engaged
in the active pursuits of life, and from the reproaches
uttered by them against the administration of law in
certain other countries, I am inclined to infer not
unfavourably of Austrian civil procedure ; and to
believe that, taken in the aggregate, although sus-
ceptible of great improvement, it works fairly well,
in the generality of cases, towards the ends of sub-*
stantial justice.*
But to understand the genius of the Austrian
government, we must carry our views far beyond the
* In Hungary the law is quite distinct from that of Austria.
One of its peculiarities is, that a suit for real estate may be kept
alive for ever, and never brought to issue, merely by a forensic re-
newal of claim once in every thirty-two years ; whence it happens
that there is scarcely a property ih the kingdom which has ever
passed from the direct descendants of the original grantee, withoi^
having, at this moment, some adverse claim attached to it. An-
other peculiarity, or rather deficiency, is its ignorance of commer-
cial transactions. Bills of exchange are unknown to the law, as
they are indeed almost to the trade, of Hungary ; and when I was
at Petth, I heard of a case — I mention it only as I recollect to
have heard it-— of an action brought on a bill of exchange, wherein
the sentence was in favour of the plaintiff, not as drawee or in-
dorsee in legal possession, but as the person who had '* advanced
money on its security ;" and the amount was directed to be re-
ceived in equal moieties from the drawer and the acceptor, these
two being held as the joint parties by whom the instrument of
security was concocted !
Vin.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 233
mere mechaziism by which it is impelled* We must
look to those moral peculiarities, which cement it in
the compactest union with the general feelings of the
people. Of these, the first and most important is
that alliance between the public education and the civil
government, which forms one of the most peculiar
features in the policy of the state. No one can
hold civil office, however low, without certificates
of education — without, in other words, testimo-
nials of his mind having been moulded into that
uniformity of character, which pervades the entire
education system. For the inferior servants, the
certificates of the inferior schools suffice : for such as
are of higher station, those of the university are re-
quired (or it may be of the lyceeum in lieu), gene-
rally in the faculties of law or philosophy. The doc-
tor's degree is for this purpose rarely taken ; but the
certificates must set forth due attendance at lectures,
the satisfactory passage through rather a strict ex-
amination at their close, and likewise the orderly and
moral conduct of the candidate during the period of
tuition. Neither do these certificates wholly suffice.
A second examination is held by the officers of the
government itseilf, which, owing to the increasing
number of candidates, has of late years been ren-
dered more and more severe : for, after the student
from the university or superior school has passed
through this second ordeal, he is not only competent
to hold office, but, what is most important to observe
as a vital peculiarity in the Austrian system, he is
morally certain of obtaining an appointment, if such
234 AUSTRIA. [CH.
be the object of his family or of himself. It may be
some time, possibly some years, before he is appointed
to a post ; and that post, according to his own station
in life, and to the interest he can exert, may be in a
subordinate excise-office of a distant province, or in
the Imperial Chancery of Vienna ; but, after having
been once placed (supposing always regularity of
conduct), he will necessarily rise according to seni-
ority. If his talent be conspicuous, he may be trans^
ferred from an inferior department to the tail of a
superior one ; or, possibly, he may be placed on some
peculiar exceptive employ, of which the government
has always an abundance ; but, in his own departr
ment, he will pass no superior in official age ; nor
will any inferior pass over him. This general prinr
ciple of advance by seniority extends through the
whole civil service : for although the sovereign has
of course the power to make any nominations or alter-
ations he may please, still, were he to exercise that
power in a manner inconsistent with established
usage, such would be the shock to the confidence of
the whole civil service, as probably in some degree to
shake the stability of the government itself. Even in
the constitution of the superior councils, which, al-
though subordinate to the cabinet, form nearly supreme
departmental authorities, the theoretical absoluteness
of the imperial will must yield to the force of custom
or opinion. On the occurrence of vacancies among
the members, or on the removal or retirement of their
presidents by death or pensioned superannuation, Ihe
new appointments must be made from among indivi-
viil] civil government. 235
duals in the lower grades of the same department ;
and, from the miderstood nature of the service, the
advice which these functionaries tender to their sove-^
reign must mainly prevail.* By slow and cautious
degrees only can alterations safely be made. One
most important novelty of modem years was the grant
x>{ peculisff powers and functions to the Prince de
Metternich; and were that eminent statesman re^
moved, it might possibly be not deemed requisite to
^select his successor, in the high post of " Chancellor
of the Court and Conferences," from among the three
or four individuals who by the hitherto unvaried
usage could alone succeed to it : but in the general
course of the service, were the sovereign to oppose his
private will to the established march of the system,
he would probably be himself among the earliest vic-
tims of the general disturbance.
Next in the order of moral causes, as operating
on a public mind moulded by uniform education, is
* I remember the case of a distinguished general officer, who
in private audience received the late emperor's promise of recom-
mendation for a particular command of no very active duty. He
did not obtain it ; and complained. The emperor expressed his
regret, with the assurance of his having urged the appointment ;
but that the President of the Council of War was inexorable.
" You must see him,*' said the emperor, " and endeavoiu: to gain
him. If you cannot, you shall have what post you choose about
my person, or my private domains — but I can do no more." He
was not appointed ; and he ascribed the refusal wholly to the pre-
sident. The English reader may suppose that the emperor acted
with dissimulation, or with indifference as to the object. This
was not the opinion of the party interested.
236 AUSTRIA. [CH.
the kindly nature of the public rule; and on this
point it is not unimportant to reflect for a moment
on the power derived by the government from tiie
personal character of the imperial princes. The
unostentatious habits^ the simplicity of manners,
the pure domestic virtues^ and honest active benevo*
lence of all the members of the ruling family, have
procured for them a greater degree of personal
affection than, in my belief, is enjoyed by any other
princes ia Europe. Taking them singly, we see the
Archduke Palatine, amid all the political ferments of
Hungary, and the diffidence exhibited by the Diet
towards the cabinet of Vienna, ever resorted to as a
confidential friend and adviser, even by the exalted
of the liberal party. He is the general arbitrator;
and I well remember, during the winter we passed
at Pesth, the extreme anxiety expressed by many of
my most liberal friends, on the occasion of his being
attacked with an illness which, for a time, threatened
serious consequences. In Styria and the southern
provinces, the Archduke John is conspicuous as the
active promoter of private and public good ; — ^the
founder and personally directing president of literary
institutions and of agricultural societies ; — ^the intro-
ducer from foreign lands, and the promoter in his
own, of all that may improve the industry and well-
being of the country. The Archduke Rainer, as vice-
roy of Italy, has, by his wise government and per-
sonal qualities, conciliated the Italians, as far proba-
bly as they can be conciliated to any German rule.
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT, 237
The character, feelings, and temperament of the Ita-
lians and Grermans are indeed so opposite to each
other> that anything of cordial intercourse between
them does not, and probably never will, exist ; but
the disaffection is rather to Germany than to Austria ;
and were Lombardy united to any other German
state — as, for instance, to Bavaria or to Wurtemberg,
and had she at the same time no chance of being
wholly detached from Germany y — I have little doubt
she would, like Tyrol, be seen ere long in revolt, to
regain her. connection with Austria, in preference to
maintaining that with any other transalpine country.
The other two archdukes, Charles and Lewis, being
resident chiefly in or near Vienna, have been less
conspicuous in active life since the termination of the
wars with France ; but the arts and agriculture, both
in Austria and in Hungary, where the Archduke
Charles is the patron and supporter of the noble agri-
cultural establishment of Altenburg, are. greatly in-
debted to the liberal patronage of the former ; and
both are respected and valued for their private excel-
lence. The emperor himself strives, as far as his
health will permit, to tread in the footsteps of his
father. His habits of life are retired and unexpen-
sive. He takes his walks among the people, accom->
panied by the empress, but otherwise wholly unat-
tended ; and on certain days he gives those personal
separate audiences to any of his subjects wishing to
address him> which, among other things, pi-ocured
for his father so much of popular affection. In the
238 AUSTRIA. [CH.
days of Francis, every farmer or petty proprietor or
shopkeeper, for hundreds of miles round Vienna,
who had a grievance to complain of against any offi-
cer of the government, used to get into his cart, drive
himself up to the capital, and tell his story to
^'Kaiser Franz/'* The Emperor generally received
him alone, took a note of the case, and, if it were one
(as was most usual) where some injustice had been
done to a civilian, as, for instance, in the undue quar-
tering of soldiers on march, or a vexatious demand
of horse or man service for the government, &c., &c.,
* The mind of the Emperor Francis appears to have been
moulded by the circumstances of his reign into two classes of feel*
jng, quite opposed to each other, and both of them intense. To-
wards his German subjects, who had ever remained immoveably
attached to him, and who loved his paternal rule, his affection
amoimted to little short of a passion. He was the very personi-
fication of fatherly gentleness and love. On the other hand, his
experience of the devastation attendant on revohition had led him
to regard political offences as sins against all mankind, and con-
sequently more heinous than every other. Hence the severity
exercised during the earlier years of peace (a severity now most
essentially relaxed) in the Italian provinces ; and hence the ex-
cessive rigour, which appears to have been commanded by himseli^
towards prisoners of state charged with seditious designs. Cases
are known wherein the highest o£Gicers sought to mitigate these
severities — wherein even the Prince de Mettemich, with a highly
honourable humanity, entreated permission to supply books from
his own library (that no treasonable correspondence might by pos-
sibility be suspected) to incarcerated Italian nobles ; but the bene-
volence of a minister, popularly supposed to be all-powerful, was
defeated by -a will superior to his own.
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 239
he was generally sure of redress. If the complaint
were that of an officer, civil or military, against a
superior, the case wais indeed far more doubtful, for
Francis had a horror of insubordination ; but, at all
events, the complainant obtained a patient hearing,
and probably the expression of some reproof towards
the culpable superior ; although that reproof might be
private, and although too the complainant might be
himself the ultimate sufferer, from the consequent
dislike of his commander. Nor were such the only
cases which met the imperial ear. Upper and Lower
Austria, and Styria, abound with stories of simple-
minded men, who, in their domestic difficulties, their
differences with each other, their doubts as to their
daughters' marriages or their own testaments, used
to go up to have a friendly consultation with the em-
peror, and were certain to receive from him plain
straightforward sensible advice. An old friend of
my own was indebted to such an audience for the very
great success of a peculiarly prosperous life. His
father, a small trader in Istria, had been accused of
some contraband dealing, and cast into prison. Re-
presentations to the local authorities were vain. My
friend, then only in his eighteenth year, set off for the
capital, went boldly to the palace, and succeeded, as
he believed, in establishing his father's innocence in
the mind of the emperor. He was directed to return
to Istria, with the assurance that justice should be
done. He did return, but found his father still in-
carcerated. He forthwith undertook a second jour-
240 AUSTRIA. [CH.
ney to the emperor, and made some complaint that
he had been deceived. **You are in error," said
Francis, *'go home again, and take my word, your
father will be out of prison before you reach Istria."
Such he found to be the case : neither was this the
only result of the spirit and energy he had displayed.
They recommended him to the permanent regard of
the emperor, who ever afterwards befriended him,
and placed him in the course of wealth and honour.
Francis has been gathered to his fathers^ but the
genius of his rule remains; and, as regards the effect
of individual conduct on public feeling, it is essential
to observe how much that genius extends also to the
less exalted depositaries of the public authority. The
governors of provinces take the tone of those by
whom they are appointed. Of Bohemia, I have al-
ready made mention, as one of the European countries
wherein the greatest ameliorations have of late years
been introduced and effected — a course of improve-
ment owing, in great measure, to the able administra-
tion of the Count de Chotek, who, vnth the title of
Grand Burggrave, is at the head of the local govern-
ment. To those who preside over the other pro-
vinces, credit of a similar character is mainly due ;
and, I believe, is generally conceded. They are all
civilians ; as fai* as I have had an opportunity of fonn-
ing a judgment, plain practical men, brought up in
the administrative department of which they are ulti-
mately called to be the chief; unostentatious, easy of
access, and inured to habits of business.
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 241
The system of taking into the employ of the state
all persons otherwise unprovided for, who pass with
credit through the higher academies and the subse-
quent regulated examinations, renders, as it were, the
government itself the general inheritance of the pub-
he. It is in accordance with the prevailing principle,
which regards the sovereign only as the general
father ; and it contributes essentially to the compact
energy of his rule, by enlijsting in its behalf the inte-
rests of evexy class, in further addition to the effects
of uniform training and of personal attachments.
Besides the vast number of persons still of tender
years, or already adult, who look forward to future
provision, there are,* according to returns which I
have had the opportunity of inspecting, 27,116 per-
sons holding permanent, and 5,665 holding temporary,
employ in the civil service, all of whom^ from their
relative station, must be presumed to have received
certificates from the xmiversity or the gymnasium.
Below these are 85,774 other individuals receiving
the wages of the state, as subordinate servants, toU-
coUectors, custom-house examiners, porters, work-
men in the royal mines, royal fabrics, and all the
subordinate labour of the government; the whole
* The precise figures of this and other statements in this work
app^y not exactly to the present year, hut to that of which I had
the opportunity of inspecting the details. The two or three years,
however, which have since elapsed can make no material differ-
ence in their amounts, or in the arguments and inferences raised
upon them.
VOL. 11. R
242 AUSTRIA.
of whom mart have likewise leedred cjutlfkjtef of
edueatioii, tiioiigfa of a lower das. Hoe tbcre
aie neariy 120,000 fenom, aU educated on wt
same plan ; all having read (as fiu* as their icipeetire
degrees extend) the same books, and mort of tfaem
probably no others; all upholding the stabifitr of
the government, not only for their own daily bread,
but as hostages also for the multitude of bmiEes villi
which they are connected, and in a certain degree ibr
every family in the onpire; each of whom may ex-
pect similar future provision for others of their diil-
dren or connexions. Neither even does lius ooosti-
tute the whole of their personal interest in the con-
servation of the existing institutions. Hie govon-
ment deserts not its servants in their old age, nor
tbeir families after they are gone ; and, considerii^
that the rules of the administration allow of no ca*
pricious permutations or promotions, that each indi-
vidual, when once placed, must serve during the
whole period that nature allows him to do so, and for
salaries so small as rarely to allow any accumulation
of fortune ; that, consequently, there can be very few
unmerited pensions gained by short and transient or
nominal service — the Austrian government need feel
no shame of its pension-list, enormous as it is. Al-
leged penury of revenue, or ostentatious professions
of economy, are never allowed to limit the justice of
the state towards those who have served it; or its
paternal care of their families when they have passed
away; and hence the number of pensioners in an
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. - 243
official list now before me, is stated at 10,793 super-
annuated civil officers, 13,224 widows, and 9498
orphans of civil servants (receiving altogether among
them 6,405,966 florins, or 640,696/. sterling), as
permanent pensioners : besides which, there are
10,531 more of retired civil officers, 13,969 widows
of such, and 8120 orphans, who may be considered
nearly in the same light ; as, although they are not on
the fixed list of pensioners by right, they form that
of the Provisionalisteny receiving among them sup-
port to the further amount of 1,060,345 florins, or
106,034/. sterling, per annum.
Let any one fairly consider what must be the
result of this union of education, affections, and in-
terests on the national mind, and he \vill have no
occasion to call in to his imagination the aid of mili-
tary or civil coercion for the support of the govern-
ment. As far as to communicate any doubtful or
ambiguous proceedings which he may witness, every
person becomes an unpaid agent of police; and
whether this arise from the fear of compromising
themselves or their connexions by a culpable cogniz-
ance, or from sincere attachment to things as they
are, the result is still the same.* Unopposing and
* Political offences are visited with extreme severity, but very
rare are the instances in which natives of the German provinces
have been political offenders.
R 2
244 AUSTRIA. [CH.
unopposed, the goverument pursues the even tenor of
its way. While Europe has fancied it to be slum-
bering in torpid apathy, because from Austria were
heard no sounds of boisterous agitation, it has been
employed in steadily, though noiselessly, elaborating
institutions on which mainly depends the welfare of
mankind. The reign of Francis was a period of no
ordinary difficulties — blasted with the fury of foreign
wars, and the embarrassments of financial penury :
yet, under his active and judicious policy, general
prosperity was restored ; public credit established ;
and those great organisations of civil and criminal
justice, ecclesiastical discipline, financial order, and
public education systematised and matured, by the
study and contemplation of which, the real character
of his rule can alone be understood and appreciated.
The English reader who is aware that, in the
years 1813 and 1814, the number of civil servants
in the pay of the British government exceeded a
hundred and thirty thousand individuals, although
none of these were required, as in Austria, for royal
fabrics and monopolies, or for lines of internal cus-
tom houses intervening between different portions of
our dominions, will find less cause for surprise at the
numerical extent of the Austrian establishments;
still, in the official organization of these employes
may be seen one of the greatest evils of the Austrian
system. It is that Bureaucracy^ which to a great
VIII.] * CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 245
degree prevails in every continental government — that
officious, intermeddling, all-regulating spirit, which
(like, in some degree, those necessary evils, our own
excise-laws) interferes with man's private business
and private industry — that over-love of system,
which, in the number of specious documents, fancies
it obtains realities — and, finally, that jealous and cum-
brous accumulation of check upon check, clog upon
clog, over their own officers and agents, which, in
the multitude of its contrivances for the regulation of
the state-machine, sometimes impedes its progress
altogether. France is greatly infected with this
mischievous system.* Every German government is
* Some ten or twelve years ago, a villager in the south of
France claimed the sum of six francs, the legal reward to any
person who should kill a wolf. His claim was made to the
Adjoint du Maire officiating in the village. By him it was re-
ferred to the Maire of the Arrondissement ; by him to the Sous-
Prc^fet of the departmental division, and by the Sous-PrtSfet to his
chief^ the Prc^fet of the Department. The Prc^fet transmitted it to
the Minister of the Interior at Paris, who, admitting the claim,
but not having the cash, sent it before the Minister of Finance.
This last officer sent the order for payment to the Minister of the
Interior, from whom it passed through all the other links of the
chain, till it reached at last the Adjoint of the village ; and, at
the end of nine months, and after, probably, a quire of paper
and half a pound of wax, and the services of a dozen employd^s,
had been employed on the subject, the man received his six francs.
Later regulations would, 1 believe, cut out two or three of these
references ; but still the system of centralisation, as it is called,
the jealousy of local administrations or individual servants, the
love of scribbling and filling large books, exists in France to an
awful extent.
246 AUSTRIA. [CH.
SO in a still larger degree. It has tended more than
all the rest of their policy to render the Bavarian
dynasty unpopular among the Greeks ; and although
in Austria the present ministry is, to a certain ex-
tent, reforming the evil, yet a considerable period
must probably elapse, and some considerable im-
provement too must take place in the ideas of the
ministers themselves, before the many-headed hydra
can be vanquished. The constantly-increasing pres-
sure upon them of young men from the universities
and gymnasiums, requiring to be provided for in the
state, has induced the adoption of examinations far
more rigorous than were formerly in use ; and this
alone will have an important though gradual effect,
in reducing the number of candidates for provision :
but, besides this, the government is endeavouring, in
al' the departments, to introduce ameliorations ; and
the hope may be entertained that, in so doing, they
will a little un-Germanize themselves, and follow the
example of more simply managed nations. When
we investigate indeed the details of our own adminis-
trative departments, military, naval, and civil, — ^the
multitude of merely formal, and, what is worse, of
most fallacious and deceitful vouchers, required for
the justification of the minutest public expenditure —
the injustice inflicted on public servants by procras-
tinations of audit until the period has passed away
when adequate explanations might have been ob-
tained, — and the iLJuries to the service and to its
members from the pretensions of conflicting authori-
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 247
ties ; it may not beoome us to criticise with too great
severity the Bureaucracy of Austria. But evils, pos-
sibly unavoidable evils, with which use renders us
^miliar at home, may appear in glaring relief
when viewed in a fbrdgn land ; and truth, moreover,
compels the addition^ that those evils are in them-
selves much greater in the Austrian, as generally in
the German governments, than in our own. A sys-
tem of extreme minuteness is seen to pervade every
branch of the service. The documents which were
intended as checks and counterchecks become, from
their number, mere copies of each other ; and cor-
ruption is rendered the more extensive, and the more
difficult of detection, from the complication of pre-
cautions adopted to prevent it.*
There is one result, however, of this all-prevailing
activity of the civil force, which would delight the
eye and the heart of the statistical amateur. Returns
are procured by the government from every depart-
ment of the empire (with the exception of Hungary
* In passing through the custom-house on quitting the lazaret
of Orsova, on the Danuhe^ although our party consisted only of
eleven gentlemen and four or five servants, — although the custom-
house officers attached to the lazaret were occupied with us alone,
— ^and although, in their anxiety to despatch us, they worked with*
out intermission from eight in the morning till sunset in the
month of August, giving up even the hour allowed for dinner ; —
yet such was the copying and coimter-coppng, that they could
not possibly clear our baggage within the day ; and a part of the
business remained over for the following one.
248 AUSTRIA. [CH.
and partially of Transylvania), and on every subject
relating to each, with the extreme of apparent accu-
racy. Not only do these returns contain every detail
connected with the financial, civil, judicial, and other
departments of the government itself, in all their
ramifications: but likewise everything relating to
foreign and mternal commerce and mdustry— the
number of sheep, horses, cattle, &c., possessed by
every individual— the amount of produce of all agri-
cultural, and manufacturing, and mining labour —
the lists of new houses built, and of old ones aban->
doned — ^the " movement" of the population as to
numbers, conditions, crimes, punishments and re-
wards, education, classification of religion and of em-
ployments, and other details almost endless. These
returns are annually worked up into a body of tables,
certainly the most beautiful and comprehensive of any
in Europe. Those of the Swedish government are
excellent, as are also the Bavarian : but the Austrian
tables are superior to either ; and well might a minis-
ter at Vienna say to an Englishman, " I often won-
der at motions made in your parliament for statistical
information, which even when produced is very de-
fective ; whereas I have no occasion to go beyond my
own library for any detail whatever, however minute,
of all that exists in any part of the empire." These
tables are not made public. Only three or four-and-
twenty copies of them are lithogi'aphed, for the use,
in whole or in part, of members of the imperial
VIII.] CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 249
family, of ministers of state, and of governors of pro-
vinces ; after which the stene is defaced ;* but,
as far as my own judgment of them extends, 1 am
inclined to think the government does itself injustice
in not letting them go forth fully to the world. Much,
indeed, of general statistical information is allowed to
be published, as derived from these sources, by per-
sons to whom they are communicated, and this is of
the most comprehensive and accurate description, as
far as the subjects extend to which it refers; but
still the concealment in which the rest is slirouded
gives room for suspicions, ofien as unjust in fact as
they are injurious to the character of the govern-
ment. I allude especially to the civil administration
and to the department of finance ; regarding which
it is hardly conceivable what errors are entertained
by persons otherwise well-informed. I remember
certain details communicated to me by a personage
bearing one of the highest princely titles in the em-
pire, which, coming to me from such a source, I na-
turally credited, until, by my own inspection of official
records, 1 perceived that they were utterly erroneous.
The government, however, act perhaps wisely in
withholding for a few years longer (and they antici-
pate that this expediency, unless unexpected inter-
• There are, beiides, twenty or thirty tables regarding th- ■»"-
vate revenues of the crown, the posi
army, and some other recondite deta
copies are takea, and these allowed
and two or three cabinet ministers.
250 AUSTRIA. [CH.
ruptions should occur, will last a very few years only)
the publication of their financial and other accounts.
They are conscious of errors committed in years
gone by, financial, commercial, and administrative.
The events of the wars with France, including the
double occupation of the capital itself, have inflicted
wounds on the empire, which have not yet been
wholly cicatrized. Important defects exist, espe-
cially in the revenue system, in the working of the
mines, the management of the royal monopolies, do-
mains, &c., which are still only in course of gradual
removal. Economical too, rigidly economical, as it is
sought to render the government expenditure, still
no great reduction can be made in that of the civil
service, while the number of employes and of pen-
sioners continues so great ; and this burden can only
be reduced in the ordinary course of nature, since, be
the cost what it may, the state will not break its faith
with those whom it has received into its service, or
frustrate the just expectations which it has itself
created.
IX.] 251
CHAPTER IX.
Public Police. — Its Organization — Expense, excellent Conduct,
Unobtrusiveness, and Efficiency — Rules as to Foreigners at the
Frontier and in the Interior — Secret Police — Miscon-
ceptions generally entertained — Police of the Press —
Greneral Principles — Censure on Native and Foreign Literature,
and its effects — Great indulgence as to Foreign Books and
Journals — Difficulty experienced by Natives in obtaining per-
mission to Travel.
The subject of Police, whether as regards the per-
son or the press, has been hitherto alluded to only as
it has borne on others which have been under more
immediate consideration. It is one, however, of such
great importance in itself, both as illustrating the
nature of the government and the training of the
people, that I have conceived it desirable to devote
to it a separate chapter.
In Hungary y the public police, such as it is, — in
other words, the conservation of public order, — vests
in the municipal bodies, for all that regards the inte-
rior of the cities and of those towns which have be-
come entirely free ; and elsewhere for the kingdom
at large, either in the functionaries of the manorial
252 AUSTRIA. [CH.
lords, or in those appointed by the nobles of each
county assembled in periodical meeting. In the
German States the municipal bodies have a general
police jurisdiction within their respective boundaries ;
and in the open country, especially in the northern
provinces, much of this autliority vests in the func-
tionaries of the manorial lords, who, as formerly
stated, have a power of inflicting punishment for in-
fractions of the public peace, to the extent of three
days' imprisonment or fifteen blows. The crown,
however, ever in conflict with feudality and privilege,
has succeeded in gradually abating, or rendering sub-
ordinate to itself, the greater portion of real power
formerly enjoyed by the municipal and manorial
agents. In the administration of police, as in that of
finance, education, and religion, it has constituted u
regular system of gradation, descending from the Di-
rector-General of Police at Vienna to the landesstelle
of each province, and from it to the kreisampt of
each district. In the principal cities and localities of
large and general resort, it has erected police esta-
blishments concurrent with, or superior to, those of the
municipality or the manor ; and, connected therewith,
it has formed an armed police force, which is par-
tially distributed in the more important places, but
of which the aggregate number cannot be great, since
the whole of that stationed in Vienna consists only of
610 men, including 40 of horse patrol. In Italy^
the Austrians have continued much of the system of
their predecessors the French, accompanied with an
IX.] POLICE. 253
increased degree of unpopularity, although less of
actual severity or restraint. Two especial regiments
are there kept up for police service : the one for the
province of Milan^ and the other for that of Venice ;
and the entire conservation of public order in every
grade rests with the government authorities. The
regular troops are, in the Austrian dominions as else-
where, brought in aid of the police when necessity
so requires ; but, as in England, they are in such
cases subordinate to the civil functionaries. The
police duty of the frontier generally, and especially
that of preventing contraband, is performed partly by
the armed police, partly by the regular troops, and
partly by an armed custom-house or revenue force,
acting under civilian orders. That the whole police
establishment of the empire is not considerable, may
be inferred from the fact, that its entire expense is
only 1,643,500 florins, or 164,350/. sterling per
annum ; although in this sum is included all charge
for equipments and support of the two Italian regi-
ments ; of the armed force in the German states ; all
salaries, from the 15,000 florins paid to its chief at
Vienna, down to that of the lowest employ^ ; and all
the pensions to retired servants, widows, and orphans,
in this branch of the service.
In the larger cities of the German provinces, some
portion of the armed police is stationed in the different
districts ; and the mounted guard, where (as at Vi-
enna) they exist, do the usual service at the entrance
of theatres, and in patrolling the streets during the
254 AUSTRIA. [CH.
night. The cities being divided into districts^ a civi-
lian commissary of police . is established in each^ as
also one or more in the smaller towns and the water-
ing-places ; and these functionaries exercise a quiet,
unobtrusive, but effective, supervision over aU that
passes within the range of their respective localities,
excellently preserving public order and decorum,
without any external appearance of restraint. No-
where in the Austrian states, not even in the large
watering-places, is public gaming allowed or prac-
tised. Vagrants and mendicants are at once removed
to workhouses ; and persons unable to render a satis-
factory account of themselves are liable to be treated
as vagrants. For individuals of this description, re-
ceptacles exist in the cities, of which that at Vienna
may be. taken as a model - of the rest. No persons
charged with crime are admitted, nor those convicted
of misdemeanors ; but such individuals only as are
deemed, from looseness of general habits, likely to
fall into crime. The inmates are employed in various
kinds of work ; and, although committed for longer
or shorter periods, are in fact liberated only when it
is deemed that they have acquired industrious habits
adequate to their future providon. Connected with
this House of Industry is one of those separate esta-
blishments for the reformation of young persons, male
and female, of a higher dass, which have been for-
merly mentioned,* and which are conducted on a plan
quite analogous to the general character of Austrian
• Page 184.
IX.] POLICE. 255
institutions. To it the father or the guardian may
send the unruly youth, or the wayward damsel, at
that period of life when fault is not yet hardened into
habit ; and where each» in a separate room, is taught,
by instruction and solitary confinement, the duties
of order and obedience. The stigma of imprison-
ment is avoided by the names of the parties being
concealed from all except the director of police, and
the intendant of the establishment. All expenses of
board and apartments are borne by the parents or
guardians i and no one can be received but by special
order of the director of police, privately granted, after*
learning the names, and judging of the circumstances
of the case ; — a precaution by which it is sought to
prevent vindictive or capricious severity.
Were it not for the order and security everywhere
prevailing, a stranger might hardly suppose, beyond
the walls of the cities, that any police existed except
only at the frontiers. In no continental country have
I ever travelled, in which, except in the provincial
capitals, is so little of it either seen or felt. We
have been for long periods perambulating Bohemia,
Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Tyrol, &c., and in
no place, except at the great watering-places, was
even a note taken, as is so ujsual in France and Ger-
many, of our names or destinations ; while we diverged
by high-roads and cross-roads, with the same unob-
served facility as would have been the case in Eng-
land. Saving at baths and provincial capitals, pass-
ports were never demanded ; and even when, on re-
turning from cross into post roads, our passports
256 AUSTRIA. [CH.
were offered, (as Lhad generally found necessary under
similar circumstances in France,) in order to obtain
post-horses, the postmasters refused to look at them.
We saw no gend'armes ; scarcely any military ; and
all conspired to impress on us the conviction that we
were among a well-governed and contented people.
As regards foreigners, some strictness is evinced at
the frontier, which may depend in good measure on
the appearance, the conduct, and the passport of the
stranger. The visa of an Austrian diplomatic func^
tiionary of higher rank than that of consul is requisite
for the passport in every case ; but even when pro^
vided with such a certificate, especially if the strange
come in humble guise, and without any commercial
or other object expressed in his papers, he will be
probably viewed with suspicion. He may be inter-
rogated as to the motives of his journey, and the pro-
bable length of his stay. His baggage and papers
may be rigidly examined, and himself required even
to give the name of some banker or other respectable
resident, as a referee in the town to which he is
going; and, moreover, this referee may be applied
to, (and such, I am told, is of frequent occurrence,)
to declare whether, from his credits or otherwise, he
may be considered as a person competent to pay for
the expenses he will incur.* Ikiglishmen I believe
* This latter precaution is avowedly taken to prevent pereons
of doubtful appearance and character incurring debts in the
country, or remaining paupers in it. liisnol confined to Austria.
Avery
IX,] POLICE. 2§7
to be less subject to such aunoyanees, generally, than
other persons ; though I have met with some, whom
I belieye to be of much respectability, who were so
disgusted with them, as to return to Saxony, instead
of going forward to Vienna ; and the demand for the
name of a banker I have been assured to have been
made even in the case of large and opulent families,
travelling with a considerable equipage. As to our-
selves, no question of the kind was ever asked, al-
though we had occasion several times to cross and
recross the frontier, in various directions : nor, indeed,
was any other query of any kind addressed to us,
except as to our immediate destination, with a view
to the necessary visa, and as to our possession of books
or tobacco ; in regard to which, our reply, that we
had none of the latter, and such only of the former
as were requisite for our own use in travelling, was
deemed perfectly satisfactory. It must be borne in
mind, that the policy of Austria — ^and every sovereign
state has the right of adopting such maxims of in-
ternal policy as it conceives most advisable — ^is not
favourable to the general admission of foreigners.
The necessitv of international courtesies, and the ful-
filment of reciprocal treaties, render it impossible for
A very respectable English gentleman told me he had been asked
to give a similar reference at Berlin : the officers df police telling
him, with much courtesy of manner, that the only object in view
was (he being alone) to provide against the contingency of his
being taken suddenly ill, and d3ring : in which case the govern-
ment would wish to know who should receive his effects !
VOL. II. S
25S AUSTRIA. [CH.
ker to exclude them ; nor has she even any inclina-
tittB to do so, as regards those who have in view com-
Baercial or other practical objects : hut she shrinks
firom the exciting influence of foreign opinions on
her own tranquil and paternal system. Desiring to
avoid interference, from any quarter, with her plans
of progressive interi^al. improvement, she espe-
dally dreads all that may impair that union of public
feeling which forms the strength of her rule — ^all that
may tend to disturb the tranquillity of the people and
the confid^ice of their rulers. Hence she is not de-
sirous to encourage the visits of strangers to her
dominions. Let an EngUsh gentleman, however,
with a fair external appearance, with his papers in
order, especially bearing the passport, not of the
French Agent in London, but of the English Secre-
tary of State, which is more essential in Austria and
Italy than many persons suppose ; let him conduct
himself with the proper courtesy due from all, and
especially from foreigners, towards officers discharging
a mere public duty ; 1^ him Neither by his own know*
ledge of the language, or by that of his servant, be
able to prevent misunderstandings, and conform to
local usages ; and he may rely, as far as our own ex-
perience enables me to judge, that he will have little
trouble from the police, at the boundaries, or most
probably any where else, in the German or Hunga-
rian States of Austria.*
* The exception to this observation is in cases wherein suspi*
cion may be entertained that tobacco is concealed,; and this may
IX.] POLICE. 259
In regard to foreigners entering Hungary from
Vienna, a jealousy ia there evinced, which is very
unmeanuig, since it is quite inoperative. I have
known families in Bohemia, wishing from thence to
enter Northern Hungary, with a view of seeing a
part of that kingdom before proceeding to Vienna,
who experienced neither delay nor difficulty, nor
even any interrogatory from the Bohemian or Mora-
vian authorities, in carrying their intention into effect.
Yet, in the capital itself, permission is not given to
visit Hungary without certain previous formalities ;
and it is often positively, although quite ineffectively,
refused. In our own case, we went in person, on
our arrival at Vienna, in conformity with established
rule, to the head public office, where we were re-
ceived with great courtesy, and one question only
asked, — " Did we wish to go into Hungary ?" *' Yes,"
was the reply, " but not until we have passed some
little time at Vienna." " Will you then have the
goodness to give me a few days, at any rate one
day's notice, before you intend to go ?" ** Certainly.'*
Accordingly, when we were preparing to start, I
called and mentioned, that in about a week we
attach to all persons entering the other states from Hungary.
Twice, as I have elsewhere had occasion to observe, it occurred to
ourselves. The one time at the gates of Vienna, which we
were approaching from Presburg ; the other time in Istria, which
we had entered from the Hungarian territory of Fiume : but on
neither occasion was an examination persevered in, after distinct
denial of possessing any of the forbidden article,
s2
260 AUSTRIA. [CH.
should wish to go down into Hungary. ** Do so
whenever you choose," was the answer of the po^
lice official. " Do not take the trouble of calling
again^ — ^but send the passports by your servant, the
day before you wish to leave Vienna, and they shall
have the visa." Such was not the case with two other
English gentlemen who had applied to the office
some weeks before. To them the permission vras
refused — on what grounds I know not, unless it
were that they were youthful, which might be motive
of suspicion to the seniority-loving Austrians : but
be this as it may, the result evinced that such pre-
cautions, like many other official doings of the Aus-
trian government, are merely formal and ineffective —
and consequently tend to discredit the authority, by
which they are attempted or pretended to be en-
forced. The two gentlemen did, as any one may do,
fulfil their intentions in spite of them. They took
passports for Constantinople ; which, now that a re-
gular communication by the Danube is opened, can-
not be refused. Once arrived in Hungary, they
were beyond the reach of Austrian routine and Aus-
trian police, and enjoyed the facility of traveling
wheresoever they chose. They then returned towards
Vienna — and were willingly admitted again into Aus-
tria, by a government who were well content to
receive back out of Hungary, travellers whom they
had never wished to have gone into it.*
* I was acquainted with a Piedmontese nobleman, who» being
at Vienna, wished to ^e Pesth, but to whom the passport was
IX.] POLICE. 261
On the subject of a secret poHce, of which much
has been written and imagined, it may be requisite
to make some separate observations. That such
exists in Austria, as it does in every continental
state, and as it did in England during our long con-
tests with France, is a matter which, to a certain
limited extent, is true : but those persons are in my
mind greatly to be pitied, whose credulous imagina-
tion takes the alarm at the fancy of agents in disguise,
ever haunting their footsteps, and watching their
conduct. As regards the natives themselves (I con-
fine myselfi as usual, to the German provinces), no
country in Europe, probably, stands so little in need
of secret paid police as Austria. The education and
habits, the interests and afiections, acting as I have
explained in former chapters, establish the principal
agency of police in the tone and character of the
public mind; and thus create a far more powerful
engine, than money could ever procure. The stranger
who has moved for a time in respectable or elevated
society, may find himself, without apparent reason,
shunned and forsaken by his former associates ; and
he will be inclined to ascribe the change to denuncia-
tions made to the police by secret agents, of senti-
ments he may have uttered in the social freedom of
similarly refused. He took his passport for Constantinople, urent
to Presburg and Pesth with a friend of mine, and returned in ten
days to Vienna. It is probable that the experience of its inutility
may ere this have induced the government to abstain from such
unmeaning prohibitions.
262 AUSTRIA. [CH.
private interoourse. The case has not been a very
unfrequent one-^^^nd in truth the expression of the
supposed sentiments has been the cause of the ex*
elusion ; but not the denunciation of them to the
police. There has been no paid agent present — no
person in the employ, or the particular confidence of
the govemment-^ut the tsranquillity of Ihe Austrian
mind has be^i disturbed and alarmed by the bi^eati^
of liberalism ; and, if the opinions expressed were
exceedingly hostile to the established notions of loy«
alty and feelings of confiding attachment, it may
possibly, though not probably, have occurred, that
every one of the company vi^as, as far as giving a
private intimation on the subject to some public
itinctionary, a secret agent of police. Should opi-
nions of the character alluded to be held forth in
coffee-houses, or places of public resort, a denuncia-
tion would almost inevitably be the result — ^but still
not made probably by any specific police agent : —
and the denunciation might be followed, too, by
summary expulsion from the Austrian territories.
It is not however intended to be denied, that, espe-
cially over foreigners, for a greater or less time
after their arrival, a certain d^ree of surveillance
may be usually exercised by actually paid agents;
although, as to ourselves, personally, nothing ever
occurred to raise a suspicion of such being the fact —
and indeed, so much the reverse, that, from the
crowded state of Vienna at the time of our first ar-
rival there, I was often myself put to considerable
ix.l poucB. 263
inconvenience, from the difficulty of procuring the
service of those attendants^ to whom the secret
agency is supposed generally to be CiOinmitted. I
conceive the fact to be, that strangers, regarding
whom suspicion from any cause exists^ who may
visit doubtful persons, or hold doubtful language, are
watched ; but let a person show that he comes £or
purposes of real business^ or noterely with a curious
interest in viewing remarkable Qbjects,-^^ him
visit only at well-reputed houses, and have no sus-
pected associates, — and I believe that, after the first
few days at any rate, the police will not deem it
worth their while to pay any attention either to his
movements or his pursuits.
We now come to the Police of the Press — a re-
straining power which extends overall works printed
within the empire, and over foreign publications im-*
ported into it. The exercise of its functions is quite
in unison with the general character of the govern-'
ment. It seeks to preserve tranquillity, by the ex-
elusion of whatsoever may excite doubt or discon-
tent, discussion or comparison ; and, while its osten-*
sihle jealousy in some respects enforces this prin-
ciple with an absurdity of rigour, its paternal laLxity
on the other hand allows, for private conveni-r
ence, every species of indulgence. It weighs op-«
pressively on native talent, while its jH'ohibitioilfi
against the products of foreign genius are in good
measure unreal formalities.
264 AUSTRIA, [CH.
IVelve censors are established at Vienna, by
some one of whom must be read and approved every
manuscript proposed to be printed ; and if it be the
case of an Austrian reprint of a foreign book, then
the whole of the book must be equally supervised.
In the provinces, a faculty of licensing mere ordi*
nary publications rests with local functionaries ; but
every work, and indeed every passage, having a poli*
tical tendency, must be referred to the authorities of
the capital. The censor having received the manu*
script, exercises his own taste and judgment in the
erasure or alteration of such passages as he disap-
proves ; and, being generally some phlegmatic per«-
sonage, well imbued with the genius of the govern-
ment, one great object of his care is to exclude all
expressions which might appeal to the imagination or
the passions of the reader. Thus, a case was men-
tioned to me, of a work treating of conflicts quite
unconnected with the Austrian empire, where ' the
expression '^heroic champions" was cut down to
" brave soldiers ;'* and '* a band of youthful heroes
who flocked around the glorious standard of their
country," became, " a considerable number of young
men who voluntarily enlisted themselves for the
public service." I was even informed by a learned
professor at a foreign university, that the Austrian
reprint of a scientific work whereof he was the
author had been suspended, until he consented to
the removal of a passage, expressing among the me-
IX.] POLICE. 2Q&
dicinal qualities of some plant, that it was occasionally
used for an immoral purpose.
The dBTect of this jealous and mischievous system
may be easily conceived. An appeal is indeed al*
lowed from the censor to the minister ; but this is
rarely more than a mere nominal privilege ; and the
ddays and procrastinations connected with the re-
vision of manuscripts is a greater evil, than even the
mutilations themselves. A twelvemonth may pro-
bably elapse, before an octavo volume is pronounced
sufficiently orthodox to be published ; — the supervi--
sion of the censors is in many cases del^ated in part
to their confidential subordinates; — ^and the result
of the whole is, . that, save mere practical works on
the arts and sciences, philosophy and theology, 8ta<»
tistieal treatises, and history sobered down to the
mere recital of facts, very few are the publications
that emanate from the Austrian press. The wings
of imagination are pretty closely clipped by educa-
tion and early habit ; but, should they ever perchance
expand and soar aloft> they usually take their flight
across the Austrian frontier, and alight in the. more
colonial regions of Leipsic, Nuremberg, or Stut*
gart-
In regard to all printed works, the avowed prin-;
ciple of the government is, that no work idiall be
allowed to circulate within the empire, unless eidier
printed under its censorship, or sanctioned by iter
police. And this princi{de extends to engravings,
lithographs, and even to manuscripts ; when, as has
266 AUSTRIA. [CH.
been attempted in Hungary, the laws Bgainst ^inted
publications are evaded by the circulation of written
papers having a political tendeni^. The great anx-
iety which was felt at the period of the French
revolution, to exclude the productions of the demo-
cratic and deistical press, caused the enactment of
the severest regulations. By an edict, issued in 1798,
'* his majesty directs that in future not a single book
shall be left to a foreign traveller by the custom-
officers, but that they be always sent to the nearest
book*-revision office, or to the kreisampt ;'* and as this
and similar edicts have never been formally repealed,
a power remains with the examining officers at the
frontier, which I believe to be sometimes, although
not often, vexatiously used ; but still it is a great error
hence to suppose, thaijoreign books are in practice
excluded, or that it is even intended they should be
so. ^Vhile the letter of the law remains unchanged,
the booksellers find no difficulty in importing, under
the direct sanction of the police, whatever books they
please ; the restrictions in their case being mainly on
the manner of the sale, the practice as to which is
very characteristic. Fixed public rules on the subject
there are none — ^a sort of discretionary faculty rests
with the police, which may be differently exercised
according botii to the difference of locality and of in^
dividual character : but, generally speaking, foreign
books are practically considered as of three classes.
The first class, those considered purely innocent, may
be exposed at the windows, in common with Austrian
IX.] POLICE. 267
publications : a second class of more doubtful cha-
racter may not be seen at the windows, lest the good
Austrians of the common ranks be led into tempta-
tion — ^but may be kept in the shops to meet the eyes
of those more literary pei;sons who frequent them :
a tUrd and still more objectionable class are not
allowed the.chance of meeting the eye at all, — but may
be kept in a magazine apart^ to meet the demand of
persons who actually apply for them out of their own
mere will and previous knowledge. I remember
asking one of the first booksellers at Prague for a
copy of Lord B3nron's Works, and was answered, that
it was a " prohibited book," on account of some of the
notes which were very offensive to the Austrian Go-
vernment ; and that, consequently, he could not let me
have it till the following day, as it was deposited in a
separate magazine. It is in such cases as these, that
a foreigner, judging merely from appearances, may
suppose the booksellers to vend publications in oppo*
sition of the intention of the government, while in fact
they may be only carrying these intentions strictly
into effect ; and another kindred error is founded on
a circumstance which sometimes, but I believe rarely,
happens, that the books of a traveller are rigidly ex-
amined at the frontier ; — possibly taken from him, in
pursuance of the order quoted above, to be restored at
the first provincial capital to which he may be going.
Nothing of the kind occurred to my brother or my-
self, although we have crossed and recrossed the fron-
tier verf many times, either singly or together ; and
268 AUSTRIA. [CH.
I believe, when it has happened, it has been not un-
frequently the fault of the travellers themselves,
especially of English travellers, who, compelled to
submit to fiscal regulations at our own frontier far
more severe than any I have experienced at any other,
too often affect a contempt of the rules and func-
tionaries of foreign states, which they might in vain
attempt to display at home. On the other hand,
however, the letter of the regulations does afford to
the employes an arbitrary faculty, and a power of in-
quisitorial annoyance which may be too easily abused.
An intermeddling spirit will, at times, unduly inter-
fere, — books will be seized and sealed up, to be
restored at a neighbouring place — and the proprietor
infers that foreign works are prohibited in Austria,
when in truth they are only subjected to the idle and
vexatious formality of an official supervision, by some
functionaries probably ignorant of the very language
in which they are written, and are then restored to
their owner.
Of Newspapers containing political information,
two only are published at Vienna, and one, or per-
haps two, in most of the provincial capitals ; all of
which are under strict censorship. Of home intelli-
gence they contain scarcely a syllable, except official
appointments, the ordinances of government, state-
ments of authorised public bodies, and the movements
of great personages : but of all that passes in foreign
countries, they are allowed to render a tolerably fair
IX.] POLICE. 269
and full account. Thus it is, that in the " Austrian
Observer," or the " Vienna Gazette," may be read
in abstract the debates of the British parliament,
with translations of a few principal speeches, in which
respect equal justice seems to be rendered -to those of
Lord Melbourne and Mr. Hume, as to those of Lord
Lyndhurst and Sir Robert Peel : but of the discus-
sions in the Hungarian diet, which is sitting within
fifty miles of Vienna, never is any report permitted
to be rendered. Of foreign journals, none are al-
lowed to be circulated in coffee-houses or public
reading-rooms, but such as are specially authorized
by the government ; and these are few in number : but
it must be allowed that the selection evinces no disin-
clination on the part of the state, that full and impar-
tial intelligence should be conveyed to its subjects.
One of the authorised papers is the Allgemeine Zei-
tung or Augsburg Gazette, probably the most general
and authentic record published in any continental
country, of all European concerns. Another is and
always has been, our own " Times ;*' and it is a re-
markable and creditable fact, that however the poli-
tical views of that journal may have varied with
circumstances, however it may, at certain periods,
have indulged in sarcasm and invective against
Austrian ministers and Austrian policy, no interrup-
tion took place in its free circulation.
It is essential to bear in mind, that for private use,
every article prohibited general importation, whether
it be French wine, or British cloth, or foreign books
270 AUSTRIA. [CH.
and papers, is allowed to be introduced by a special
permission from the custom-house or police ; and that
this permission, as regards books as well as every
other article, is, except in very peculiar cases, nev»
refused. If the work be in very bad repute, very
declamatory or argumentative against kings or clergy,
the importer may be required to engage that he will
not lend it to others : but the work itself be will
have, whatsoever it may be. I was acquainted with a
young officer of a cavalry regiment, who had a £gmcy
to receive the most violent and democratical of th^
Paris papers ; papers of that class which have, of late,
been chiefly suppressed by legal prosecutions, and in
which the Austrian emperor and princes used to come
in for a share of ridicule and abuse almost as fre-^
quently as Louis Philippe himself. My young friend
was what may be called a Pole by birth, being a
native of Gallicia, which» in language, sentiments
and wishes, is still Polish. He was stationed in
Hungary, and was youthful and ardent in all his
feelings and conduct. If jealousy existed on the part
of Ae government, not in its formalities only, but in
its real policy, this was assuredly a case for its opera-
tion. Yet the permission was granted, as of course,
and the offensive papers regularly delivered by the
post. I knew another instance of a gentleman in
the habit of receiving " Galignani's Messenger," who
applied to the governor of the province in which he
resided, for an order for its delivery immediately on
the arrival of the post, without awaiting for the v^ry
IX.] poucE. 271
tardy distribution of the letters. The answer of
His Excellency was, '' I am sorry I cannot oblige
you in this instance. If you choose to have any pro-
hibited paper^ I will give the order, and you will re-
ceive it ^us soon as the post comes in ; but ' Galig*
nani's Messenger' is in the list of permitted journals,
and therefore I cannot interfere with its usual course
of delivery." Thus, in one way or another, the
Austrian^ are well enough informed of what passes
in other countries, especially England and France ;
perhaps indeed as perfectly, as their own apathetic
indifference would allow them to be. Not in the
great towns only, but in the secluded alpine valleys
of Upper Austria and Styria, I have been sometimes
startled at a question respecting points of our mere
domestic English differences ; and I remember when
we were once changing horses at a small Styrian
village, the minister of the parish convinced me in a
few minutes casual conversation, that he was tolerably
acquainted with the arguments on both sides, on the
subject of the ballot.
All these circumstances evince what may be ob-
served in so many respects, of the march of the
government in the German provinces, that a formal
severity is combined with a substantial indulgence —
a kind of ostentatious jealousy thrown over a real
and confiding indifference. On one point, however,
that of permission for its subjects to travel in foreign
lands, the state police is strict and severe ; and. its
practice herein is quite in accordance with that
272 AUSTRIA. [CH.
general principle^ which we may observe running
through all its details, — a desire to promote the mate-
rial prosperity of its subjects^ without endangering
their tranquil contentedness of spirit. It throws no
impediments in the way of travel, where the object
is specific and practical ; but it greatly disapproves of
wanderings, especially into countries differently con-
stituted from its own, where curiosity only is to be
indulged, or ideas and habits acquired which it con*
ceives may lead to future discontent. Thus bankers,
merchants, artists, and all of whom it may be sup-
posed that real business is the objectof their journey,
receive passports without diflBiculty, to go whither-
soever they please. The same is necessarily the case
with members of those highest and wealthiest noble
families, whose commanding influence cannot be
resisted ; but, with regard to the inferior nobles gene-
rally, and to persons living without occupation on
their private means, the passport to cross the frontier
is very generally refused. I have known gentlemen
of these classes who have been for years suing in vain
for permission to make a tour in England and France.
One of them, after three years' delay, obtained at last
the passport, through a special channel of interest
connected with the empress. In another case within
my acquaintance, a lady and her son, Hungarians,
wished to go to a watering-place near the frontier,
and thence to make a tour beyond it. The passport
was granted to bothy to go to the watering-place, but
to the old lady only to pass the frontier ; and, of
IX.] POLICE 273
course, both returned home re-infecta. Permission
to travel in all directions within the empire is freely
granted to all, and the further prohibition is often
defeated (as such restrictions must ever be) by the
police officers on the frontier allowing persons to pass
and to return, without the knowledge of the govern-
ment. Sometimes private nobles have taken passports
i^der the designation of merchants, which, if not
personally known, they probably procure at once ; but
this is of no frequent occurrence, since, independent
of the inconvenience of detection, the great objects
of their travelling are probably thereby defeated.
They must remain in comparative seclusion abroad :
they cannot address themselves to their ambassador ;
and consequently they can neither have access to
society of the higher ranks, nor to those institutions
and objects for which any special introduction is re-
quired.
VOL. IL
274 [CH.
CHAPTER X.
Armt. — ^Various Character of its component Parts — Dmsions of
the Empire for Military Purposes — Rules for Levies in each,
and Duration of Service — Numerical Strength — ^Military Code
— Organization of a Regiment as to Officers, and Details of
Regimental Service — Record of Conduct — ^Purchase of Com-
missions — Duties of Captain — General Character of Officers —
Privates — Structure of Courts-martial — Punishments — Pri-
vates' Pay and Allowances — Comparison of Infantry and Ca-
valry — ^Rules as to Marriage — Pensions — Hospitals and Asy-
lums — Reserve of Equipments in Store — Dispatch of Levies —
Military Force in 1814. — Navy. — Its Character and Extent —
Port of Pola.
In the accounts which have been generally given of
the Austrian army^ the discipline has been admitted
to be excellent ; but the system by which that disci-
pline is preserved has been very variously described.
By some it has been stated to be very lenient, by
others very severe ; and neither of these representa-
tions is incorrect. No distinct armies can differ more
in character and temperament, than the troops derived
from the various regions of which the Austrian em-
pire is composed ; and it follows, as a matter of just
consequence, that, in accordance with the genius of
the individuals, must be the system of management
X.] ARMY. 275
under which they are governed. The soldiers of the
German provinces are mild, docile, sober, and obe-
dient ; and in regiments composed of these, the dis-
cipline is easy and the punishments are few. A
greater degree of control is necessary over the Italian
levies, who have more of quickness and of talent, but
are with difficulty restrained from disorders, arising
not from harshness and violence of character so much
as from the great absence of moral feeling. The
Croats, Sclavonians, and other natives of the ^* Mili-^
tary frontier" make excellent soldiers, when removed
from their own districts, for endurance in march or
for energy in battle ; but they are given to habits of
intemperance, and of that rude violence, which bor-
derers on the frontiers of half-civilized countries na-
turally contract. The most excellent of the Austrian
troops for active service, and the least tractable for
garrison duty, are the Hungarians. They are ad-
dicted to theft, drunkenness, and other kinds of rude
crime ; and so vindictively ferocious are they, that in
their td^vern meetings quarrels and even murder*
continually occur. In these regiments the punish-
ments are most numerous and most severe. The
Hungarian recruit or conscript, accustomed from his
boyhood to the blows of his feudal superiors, can be
governed by blows only in his future life ; and at-
tempts made by officers of my acquaintance who had
* In a single Hungarian regiment thirty-seven murders were
perp^ated within eighteen months.
t2
276 AUSTRIA. [CH.
been transferred from German to Hungarian regi'-
ments, to introduce in these the milder system of
Austrian treatment, led only to results which com--
pelled a recurrence to the accustomed severity. Yet
one high military quality results from this flagellat-
ing education of the Hungarian peasant. Habituated
to regard his lord as a being of superior nature, he
instinctively transfers towards his officer the same
feeling in the hour of peril. His eye marks his
commander, even although the word of command
should not have reached his ear. He shrinks from
no assault, however desperate, where his officer leads
him on ; nor abandons any position, however unten*
able, if his officer does not first retreat.
For military purposes the empire may be considered
as forming four principal divisions, — Hungary — the
Military Frontier — ^the Italian Provinces — and the
German Provinces; each of which yields its contri-
bution to the military force, under different rules and
circumstances.
1st. Hungary grants to her sovereign a fixed force
of 64,000 men, comprising about 17,000 cavalry,
raised from the class of peasants ; which force varies
not in war or in peace. It is raised under the pecu-
liar laws of that kingdom ; and voted from diet to
diet, accompanied with the supply of a specific an-
nual sum of 5,000,000 florins, or 500,000/. sterling,
for, or rather towards, its equipment and maintenance.
The men were formerly raised in a cruel and barba-
X.] ARMY. 277
fous manner, by the petty magistrates (all native Hun-
garians) of the towns and villages ; but a more regu-
lar system of enlistment and ballot has been now
adopted, and the recruits are fiirnished with as little
pressure on the population as in any other part of the
empire. Every time the diet grants a levy to com*
plete the 64,000, it enacts the duration of service as
it thinks fit. The latest vote upon the subject fixes
it at ten years : but in this, as in some other respects,
the Hungarian soldier has peculiar advantages. After
the period of his service is over, he is not subject ever
again to serve in any capacity whatever ; and if, at
any time during his term of service, he succeeds to a
** peasant's holding" (the nature of which has been
described in Chapter II.), or even becomes (by death,
for instance, of an elder brother, and the decrepitude
of a father) necessary to the proper cultivation of such
'* peasant holding," he has a right to his immediate
discharge. In time of war, the crown has further
the constitutional right of calling forth the " Insur-
rection of Nobles," on the legal principle that every
Hungarian noble is bound to yield military service ;
and this right was exercised in fact three times,
during the late wars against the republic and empire
of France : but, from the delays that occurred, the
constitutional restrictions, and the defectiveness in
point of military organization, it is not probable that
the " Insurrection" will ever be called forth again.
^d. The Military Frontier. — ^This district, with
its population of moi-e than a million of inhabitants,
278 AUSTRIA. [CH.
is a permanent source from whence an army may be
raised in any emergency, with little more than the
word of the order. The organization there is purely
military ; and forms one of the most singular politi-
cal phenomena in Europe. The surface of the soil
is divided into seventeen districts, each of which is
termed a " regiment ;" each governed by a ** colonel,"
who, with his staff and subordinate officers, has, ex-
cept in a few privileged towns, the entire administra-
tion civil and military. Two regiments form a bri-*
gade ; these brigades again form four great divisions,
each commanded by a high general officer, whose
head-quarters are at Agram, Peterwardein, Temesvar,
and Hermanstadt; and who receive their orders
direct from the minister and council of war at Vienna.
The land is parcelled out into small military holdings,
descending according to peculiar rules of inheritance.
The inhabitants on each holding, who are generally,
but not always, relatives by blood or marriage,
although often in great divergence of degree, form
what is termed a *' House Communion ;" which is
subject to the rural and domestic control of one chief,
who, unless in case of personal defects, is the oldest
of the family. Every male is in a greater or less
degree trained for military service, and is liable to
be called on to serve, with certain distinctions as to
class, from the age of 18 to 60, within or without
the kingdom : with this distinctive difference, however,
that while serving within the confines of their own
*' regiment," they bear their own expenses of food
X.] ARMY. 279
and clothing ; the whole of which expenses fall on
the crown from the moment of their passing beyond
its limit. Of these borderers, who are located along
the entire line of Austrian frontier towards the
Turkish dominions of Bosnia, Servia, Wallachia,
and Moldavia, the larger portion of males are only
exercised in arms from time to time, and are habi-
tually occupied in the cultivation of the soil ; while
a smaller portion, selected according to the numbers
and ages in each house communion, are devoted to
the permanent military service. These last, in time
of peace, usually amount to from 50,000 to 60,000
men. With the exception of a very small portion of
them> stationed at the head-quarters of the regiment^
they remain mostly in their houses, save wheu taking
their turns of the actual service. From them are
detached the 4000 or 5000 men, who constantly
mount guard, day and night, along the extreme fron-
tier, and who are relieved generally once a fortnight ;
and so perfect is the system, that when any alarm is
given, either by the firing of signal guns or the burn-
ing of beacons, the whole body of 50,000 to 60,000
men are assembled in a very few hours. Such is the
ordinary detail of service in time of peace ; but on any
emergency a force of probably 200,000 could in a
short time be brought together, armed and equipped,
whereof the greater portion would be immediately
disposable for any service.* By the progress of
* This is of course supposing an abstraction from agriculture,
of all males fitted for military service.
280 AUSTRIA. [CH.
education, and an excellent, though very severe^ ad-
ministration, the government seeks to improve the
character of these borderers ; but, taken generally,
they are a rude and ferocious class of men, bad cul-«
tivators of the soil, and given to idleness and intem-
perance. They are not however ill suited to the
wild service of the frontier ; and, as I before men-
tioned, they form hardy and useful soldiers when re-
moved from their homes.
3rd. The Italian Provinces. — ^In these, all males,
whether noble or not noble, are registered for mili-
tary service at the age of eighteen, unless exempted
by constitutional debility, ecclesiastical destination, or
a very few other specified causes. From those thus
enregistered, the number required are taken by ballot ;
but are allowed to serve by approved substitutes, for
whom, however, it is often requisite to pay very con-
siderable sums. The period of service is only eight
years ; after which the soldier is entirely free, there
being neither in the Italian provinces, nor in Hun-
gary, any Land wehr or army of reserve. The Tyrol
is on the military system of the Italian provinces.
4th. The German Provinces. — Here the principle
is adopted, that all males, not noble nor clerical, and
not exempt from other causes, are liable to military
service when called on, from the age of eighteen to
forty-five, either in the line, or in the supplemental
or reserve force termed the Landwehr : with this
modification, that those who have served fourteen
years in the line are not retained in the Landwehr
X.] ARMY. 281
beyond the age of forty. In carrying out this prin-
ciple, the persons of the requisite ages are enre-
gistered in two classes ; the first class comprising
those from eighteen to twenty-eight, the second from
twenty-eight to thirty-eight. The usual mode of in-
creasing or diminishing the force is not by altering
the number of the regiments (although this also has
been done in regard to two or three since the peace
of 1814), but by augmenting and reducing the num-
ber of men in each, and placing the corresponding
number of oflicers on the list of full pay or of retreat.
The whole country being parcelled out into districts,
one or more thereof is allotted to each regiment,
which may be termed its recruiting-ground, and
whence its supplies of men are drawn ; and, besides
the force in active service, each regiment has, on
paper, its battalion or battalions of Landwehr, who
are liable to be called out when public exigency so
requires. The ordinary mode of completing the line
is, (save as to those recruits obtained by voluntary
enlistment) by taking men of the first class, those
from eighteen to twenty-eight years of age, some-
times by ballot, more frequently by selection of the
local authorities or feudal lords ; care being taken to
select, as far as possible, single men and younger
sons, and never to send to the army those who hold
in peasant tenure (as explained in Chapter II.) a
certain small portion of land. The duration of the
actual service is fourteen years : after the expiration
of which time, the soldier is inscribed in the battalion
2B2 AUSTRIA. [CH.
of Landwehr, or army of reserve, which is never
called forth except on urgent occasions ; and on the
rolls of which he remains, until he reaches his for<^
tieth year. It may thus occur, that a soldier of the
first class, sent to the army at the age of twenty, will
serve till he is thirty-four in the line, and six years
afterwards in the Landwehr ; while one who is con-
scribed at the age of twenty-eight may serve in the
line till he is forty-two, and the remaining three
years are wholly remitted, — no man who has com-
pleted his fourteen years being bound to serve in the
Liandwehr, beyond his fortieth year of age. Those
who have not been called to serve in the line pass at
the age of twenty-eight into the second class, who
are only liable to be called out in the Landwehr, but
are bound to serve therein until the full age of forty-
five. The Landwehr, unless embodied, which it
never is in ordinary times of peace, receives no pay,
and exists only on paper : but this paper existence is
with very little trouble or delay convertible at any
lime into corporeal reality ; as the registers are ex-
cellently kept, and each battalion has its full esta^
blishment of officers marked out, who, from the re-
tired or supernumerary list, are held ready to join at
a day's notice.
The numerical force of the army necessarily varies
with the exigencies of the state. No accurate ac-
count of it is rendered to the public : but it was
estimated that, in the year 1835, the number actually
X.] ARMY. 283
on foot was about 380,000, of which the composition
may be taken in round numbers as follows : —
Infantry. Sixty-three reg^ents of the line, twenty
Grenadier hettalionS} the corps of Jagen,
and the Flotilla hattalion on the Danuhe 290,000
Cavalry. Eight regiments of Cuirasuera, six Dra«
goons, seven light Cavalry, twelve Hussars,
and four Uhlans ... 38,000
Artillery. Five regiments of Field Artillery, one corps
of Bombardiers, and Grarrison ArtiUery . 20,000
Corps of Engineers, Sappers, Miners, and Pioneers 2,500
Waggon Train, Pontooners, Artificers, &c. * 30,000
380,500
In additicm to the above, it was computed that the
Landwehr, the Hungarian " Insurrection of Nobles,'*
and other available forces, might amount to 360,000
men, thus forming a grand total, on paper , of 740,000
men, but whereof 380,500 only were embodied and
received pay.
In the year 1836, when the government raised a
loan of £4,000,000 sterling, the contractors stipulated
for a reduction of the effective force, as pressing too
heavily on the national revenues; and a reduction
was promised, which, although momentarily delayed
by some circumstances connected with France and
Italy, has since been carried into effect ; and, without
affecting a precise knowledge of the quantum of actual
reduction, I conceive that, in stating the existing
force of all arms at 320,000, 1 shall not be far in
284 AUSTOA. [CH.
error, including the 50,000 or 60,000 borderers on
the line of Turkish frontier, and the force 60,000 or
70,000 usually stationed in Hungary : but, in point
of fact, the numerical force is, from its ccnnposition,
at all times variable ; and, provided pecuniary means
are not deficient, is capable of more speedy augmen-
tation, at the will of the crown, than can be effected
in probably any other European state.
That system which ascribes a particular district as
the recruiting-ground of each regiment, originated in
the feudal practice of each great landowner being
bound to furnish a specific number of men, which
formed the regiment whereof he was the director or
commander. It has been preserved, partly from dis-
inclination to change, and partly from the belief that
internal comfort would be promoted, as well as an
esprit de corps encouraged, among men belonging to
the same district, and connected together by local
and family associations. It has been found also to
answer another not unimportant political purpose, in
cases where internal duty was to be performed : for
it is observed, that the Bohemian trooper has little
sympathy with the Styrian smuggler, or the Gallician
with the carbonari of Milan. The regimental na-
tionality, however, is confined to the men. None
exists as to the officers. Hungarians may be com-
manded by Austrians, and Groats by Italians:
the only practical restriction in this respect arising
from the necessity that the duty should be carried on
in a language which officers and men can equally un-
X.] ABMT. 285
derstand. Thus the sergeants and corporals must
almost always be of the same nation with the troops ;
and. the commissioned officer has the laborious task of
learning, to a certain degree, several languages ; or
else must confine himself to a particular class of regi-
ments. Neither is there any local limit of service.
The ** borderers," in time of peace, are indeed kept
within their districts, for economical and other pur-
poses connected with their peculiar institutions ; but a
large portion of the Hungarian troops are found in
the western provinces of the empire, and Italian and
German regiments are stationed in Hungary.
The articles of war, the military code, and the
general ordinances for the service, have received
scarcely any alteration since the days of Maria The-
resa. They are beautiful in the perusal, and were
framed in the purest and most enlightened spirit : but
many of them are now of. necessity evaded from their
inapplicability to existing circumstances ; while
others are perverted in practice, from less justifiable
motives. Hence, while few men will refuse the tribute
of their approbation to the general and the powerful
efficiency of the army, few either will withhold the
wish, that in some respects its practice in detail were
brought back to the spirit of its ordinances, and in
others that those ordinances were rendered practical
by a better adaptation to the circumstances of the
times.
Every regiment has its colonel proprietor, termed
286 AUSTRIA. [CH.
in German, Inhaber, distinct from its actual com-
mander. This colonel proprietor is some general
ofl&cer of high rank or long service ; and to him, ac-
cording to the general rules, belongs the privilege of
granting all first commissions:* — ^that, namely, of
ensign in the infantry, and of comet in the cavalry ;
a privilege, however, greatly circumscribed in prac-
tice by the habit of the crown to appoint cadets from
military colleges, and by the constant policy of the
war department to limit the power of the inhaber, in
order to increase its own. All the field o£Eicers, as
well as tiiose of still higher grade in the general
army, are nominated by the crown, and the rules of
the service ordain that the ranks from ensign or
cornet to captain, inclusive, shall be attained only
by seniority ; no rise by purchase being permitted.
A glance at certain details will show by what means
these ordinances are evaded, and, at the same time,
illustrate the general nature of the service.
An important peculiarity is the " Record of Con-
duct," kept, as to every officer, by those of the grade
or grades above him, and at certain periods of every
year transmitted to the war office at Vienna. Similar
records of conduct are made as to the non-commis-
sioned officers, by their immediate superiors in con-
* In cases where eminent foreign personages, as the Emperor
of Russia, the King of Prussia, the Duke of Wellington, &c. are
titular colonels of Austrian regiments, a second colonel proprietor
is appointed as deputy, who exercises the privileges and fulfils the
duties of the station.
X.] ARMY. 287
junction with the captain ; and, if I mistake not, as
to the privates also, although in a more loose and
general manner. The ordinance of Maria Theresa
requires that each conduct-record shall be communi*
cated to the individual affected by it, in order that he
may in his discretion explain or expostulate ; but this
is little attended to in practice; and, although the
register may in most cases be hardly more than a
formality, yet it becomes at times an instrument of
great individual oppression. The tone and condition
of a regiment is much influenced by the personal
temperament of its commander ; and where this is of
an arbitrary or suspicious character, an insidious and
malicious spirit may be engendered among the officers
generally, of which the effect is, to place them all at
tiheir colonel's will. His opinions may be swayed by
petty motives or private suggestions ; and his wishes
as to the " record" to be made on his subordinates
will not be opposed by those, who, on incurring his
displeasure, will subject themselves in their turn to
the probability of an unfavourable report. I have
heard of cruel cases connected with this institution,
and some scarcely less ludicrous than cruel. An
officer, feeling himself aggrieved, approached the late
emperor in private audience, made his complaint,
was kindly received, and directed to return to the
palace in a few days. He did so. *' I am astonished,"
said Francis, " that you presume to complain to me,
when, by the official record, your own conduct has
been so flagitious." The officer asked to see the re-
288 AUSTRIA. [CH.
cord to which the emperor had alluded ; and, after
some demur» it was shown to him at the war office.
He then beheld specific acts of fault laid to his
charge^ of which he was wholly unconscious. He
insisted on, and obtained, an investigation ; when k
was found that an error had been committed .at the
war office, the. character of another officer haying
been appended to his name. He was justified to,
and by, the emperor, and returned, as it were, in
triumph to his regiment : but in a very few mcmths
afterwards he was compelled to leave it, in pursuance
of an order placing him on the pension-list for life.
The emperor's notions of subordination rarely viewed
with complacency the complaint, however just, of aa
inferior officer against his superior. The probability
is, in this case, that the colonel, whose injustice was
complained of, may have been so severely repri-
manded as never again to venture on a repetition of
his fault : but, if so, the reprimand was private, and
the unfortunate victim of the injury was so circum--
stanced, in result of his complaint, as to be compelled
to abandon all hope of promotion in the service.
This surveillance on character operates in a variety
of ways. The ensign should, by the professed rules
of the service, rise progressively and necessarily to
the rank of second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and
captain ; but, in point of fact, by the contrivance of
the colonel commanding, or of the colonel inhaber
(who, although absent, frequently interferes in the
management of the regiment), the inferior officer does
X.] ARMY. 289
pass not unfrequently over the head of the superior.
The irregularity is justified by the statement sent to
the war office in the " record," that the officer
passed over is, from want of talent, or some other
reason, unfit for the higher station ; and, should he
not acquiesce quietly in the arrangement, the fault
of insubordination may become added, in the next
report, to that of stupidity, and the complainant be
compelled to retire on the pension-list for life. But
even where this strong proceeding cannot be adopted,
the commission of a superior officer may be in
reality obtained by purchase, notwithstanding the
cogency of formal prohibitions. In such cases, the
colonels, both proprietor and commanding, must be
parties ; and one of them is probably the author of
the arrangement. The seller is prevailed on, or it
may be morally compelled, to retire on the pension-
list, receiving from the colonel a stipulated sum,
which sum is a portion only of that paid by the pur-
chaser to the colonel. The residue of the purchase
money has other destinations, among which is the
payment of certain law expenses to the " auditor ;"
a legal officer attached to each regiment as assessor,
in courts-martial, and of other charges of a legal
character.
The captain has duties and functions unknown to
our service. The clothes and accoutrements of the
company having been furnished by the government,
he is obliged to keep them in repair ; and for this
charge he receives an allowance which, according to
VOL. II. u
290 AUSTRIA. [CH,
the circumstances of the regiment, may or may not
be sufficient for the expenses he incurs. In the
Austrian, as in the British army, there are expensive
and inexpensive regiments, the difference arising in
good measure from the rank and character of the
colonels proprietor and commanding ; both of whom,
as I have mentioned, as well as other field-officers, are
named absolutely by the crown. It frequently occurs
that the colonel renders his raiment expensive to the
officers, with a view to prevent all but men of wealth
remaining in it. He may (I am alluding here to
one particular case) require a very frequent change of
dress, — undress uniform for the morning, plain civilian
clothes for the middle of the day, full-dress uniform
for the afternoon, and again plain civilian full-dress
for the evening. He may make his remarks on the
civilian dress, requiring that it be in perfect taste
and creditable to the regiment ; and, be it remem^
bered, that the expenses thus imposed are to. be borne
with a pay not increased since the days of Maria
Theresa. Applying the same principle to the cap-
tains, the colonel requires that the men of the com*
pany shall " look well on parade." If, as is too
often the case, the clothing, arms, and accoutrements
from the government depot are of inferior quality,
the captain is required to change them at his own
expense ; and, with regard to the cavalry corps espe-
cially, this is of nearly constant occurrence. Every
thing connected with extra decoration, of which there
is much in the superior regiments, extra music.
X.] ARMY. 291
colours, and insignia of various kindsi are supplied
at the private expense of the captains. The colonel
requires from them all that is connected, in his esti*
mation, with the proper appearance and station of
the companies. If aught be missing, he is dissatis*
fied. If the captain complain, or refuse to bear the
expenses, he may be himself complained of, as a
slovenly and disobedient officer. The conduct-report
may stamp his fate, and he may find himself soon
placed on the pension-list for life He therefore gets
forward under his burden as best he can. It is pro-
bable that in some cases he has his own private
emoluments in all this, which fiiUy bear him out : but
I believe, taking the service generally, the captains
rarely gain by their station ; and, not tmfrequently,
incur considerable debts. They calculate in such
event, that, having in their liberal and complying
expenditure obtained the friendship and patronage of
the commander, they will be advanced to the higher
ranks of major and colonel ; in which statins they,
will have no difficulty in paying off their incum-
brances, and in securing the enjoyment of rank and
independence for life.
It is essential to observe, however, that much of
what I have now said as matters of apparent irre-
gularity, must be considered as being of either very
partial application, or as tending to the real benefit
of the army. In the general run of the service, the
expenses, whether of subaltern, captain, or field-offi-
cer, must in the main be subordinate to their re-
u2
292 AUSTRIA. [CH.
specthre incomes ; and with regard to the records of
conduct., the perversions to which they are liable
cannot be numerous and flagrant, or they would
occasion a dissatisfaction from which the service is
in fact exempt, and which would not be risked under
a government which, as I have before had occasion
frequently to remark, hangs firmly together by the
cohesive attachment of all its classes. The evasions
practised to defeat the strict rule of seniority from
ensign to captain inclusive, will be probably viewed
by the practical man as necessary modifications, so
long as the rule itself exists, since no army can be
properly eflective while such a rule is really enforced.
On the one hand, defect of ability or of conduct
may often require to be checked from rising to re-
sponsible stations, even in cases where it may be
severe to doom an officer to retirement for life, or
where he may have committed no tangible fault of
which a court-martial can take cognizance: while
on the other, few, save mere theorists, will deny the
vast importance of a national army being to a con-
siderable extent officered from those superior grades
of society, whose members will hardly be induced to
enter the service, unless their wealth and birth can
procure for them some superiority of station and
advancement. The Austrian army is open to all:
but its genius is, in the same sense in which the
observation may be made of the British army as com-
pared with the French, decidedly aristocratical. Both
the crown and the proprietory colonels are inclined to
X.] ARMY. 293
give a preference to the members of those families
which with us would be understood to constitute the
gentry ; and it is the policy of the state not only to
engage in its service members of its own highest na-
tive nobility, but many princes likewise of the smaller
reigning houses of Germany. What Austria wants,
as does every continental country, is that beautiful
system of regimental mess, which is adopted in Eng-
land alone — that system which unites in social inter-
course, for one portion of the day, the oldest with the
youngest officer — ^which stations the junior ensign in
his turn as president at the table, where the colonel
must receive from his lips the law of the banquet —
that system which alone can inspire a frank commu-
nity of sentiment, amid all the diflferences of years
and rank ; and which, curbing alike the arrogance of
age and the petulance of youth, teaches all to com-
bine the high and manly bearing of social equality,
with the most strict observance of military subordina-
tion. Allowing for the absence of this essential pe-
culiarity, there may probably be observed a more close
resemblance in general character between the Aus-
trian and British officer than between those of many
other nations; and without entering at all into
questions of comparative discipline or efficiency, or
patriotic devotion to their country's cause, I believe
that a far higher tone of gentlemanly feeling per-
vades the whole Austrian army, than is to be found
in some other continental services in which a more
popular system may prevail. .
294 AUSTRIA. [CH.
But the anxious care of Maria llieresa was emi-
nently devoted to the enforcement of military justice
in every rank — ^and one evidence of her views on
this point was the singular system of eourts-martial^
which, since her time, has never been altered. The
court is thus composed — '^ It is not formed of officers
alone, but includes two of each rank, viz., two pri-
vates ; two lance-corporals ; two corporals ; two ser-
geants ; two ensigns ; two lieutenants; two captains;
with a major as president. This court is competent
to try all military offences conmiitted by a captain
inclusive to a private. If a major is tried, the lowest
rank which can sit on the court-martial is a lance-^
corporal, and the president in that case must be a
lieutenant-colonel. If a lieutenant-colonel be tried,
the corporal is the lowest rank allowed to sit, and a
colonel must be president, and so on." '*' The legal
officer attached to each regiment fulfils the duties of
judge-advocate, conducts the prosecution, expounds
the law, and recommends the judgment.
From the character of the British army, and espe-
cially of the officers, as moulded by our general in-
stitutions and by the peculiarities of the mess, it is
probable that in our service, justice tempered with
* This extract is from a paper on the Austrian army, from the
pen of Captain Basil Hall, puhlished in the United Service Jour-
nal of October, 1835, a paper containing much valuable informa-
tion, although in some minor particulars the information which he
received may not wholly coincide with mine. On the subject of
courts-martial, I adopt the gallant captain's words, as expressing
the facts neatly and correctly.
X.] ARMT. S95
mercy would not be so well attained by a court
modelled on the Austrian system, as on our own ;
but it is a great error to judge of what may be fitting
in one nation, by that which is found to be suitable
in another. In the Austrian courts-martial, it is
true that the privates and non-commissioned officers
are usuaUy mere nominal appendages, and adhere to
the decision which their superiors recommend ; but
still any glaring injustice is and must be prevented
by their presence. The corporals and privates have
some account to render of the proceedings, to their
comrades in the ramks — and a confidence, or at least
an acquiescence, in the equity of judgments is en*-
sured, which might not otherwise be obtained. The
established^ punishments are, death for mutiny, and
for being taken in . hostile arms afiter desertion ; for
simple desertion, tiieft, and other ofiences, either im-
prisonment, extra drills, or stripes on the back with
switches, which last are inflicted on the delinquent
as he walks or runs three or four times between
ranks of soldiers, each of whom applies a stripe as
he passes. Some extent of arbitrary corporeal pu-
nishment is moreover allowed to the captains and
field-officers; but to be exercised in a very different
and less severe manner. Such infliction is not on
the back but the breech, and with the clothes on —
the instrument is a cane, and the number of blows
given by a captain may be twenty-five — by a colonel
fifty. As I mentioned in the commencement of this
chapter, the number and severity of the punishments
ift^ AUSTRIA. [CH.
d^j^ds principally on the nationality of the troops.
In the German regiments they are light and rare —
but as military rules must be general, the power
conveyed by them is equal for the entire service;
and as these rules were framed by the benignant
spirit of Maria Theresa, since whose reign they
have remained unaltered, it may be presumed that
no unnecessary extent of arbitrary severity would be
authorised by them. That benevolent princess, how-
ever, having to legislate for the support of discipline
among Hungarians and Croats, found the absolute
necessity of allowing to the superior officer some
faculty of immediate corporeal infliction ; but this is
in practice mainly exercised in march from place to
place, where the wild character of the men can only
be restrained by that immediate punishment, to
which they have been accustomed (as regards Hun-
gary and its dependency) from the days of their
boyhood. The gassen^atifen^ the infliction of stripes
on the naked back from one hundred or one hun-
dred and fifty birch-twigs, as the case may be, three
or four times repeated, is a very severe punishment,
Init less so, in my apprehension, than that of the cat,
used in the British army ; rarely inflicted, and thai
only for offences which, until lately at least, would
have been visited with death, or with flagellation al-
most tantamount to deaths in a British regiment.
The pay both of officers and men remains fixed as
in the days of Maria Theresa, — and although calcu-
lated at that period to procure every requisite com-
Xj ARMT. 297
fort, is not adequate to do so in the present times,-^
at any rate to the ample extent intended by that great
sovereign. The amount of money-payment varies in
some small degree in different localities and circum-
stances ; but, speaking in general terms, that of the
private man is five kreutzers per day in the infantry,
six in the grenadiers and artillery, and seven in the
cavalry ; out of which they provide their food and
imiall comforts, save that the government furnishes
to each man two pounds of bread per day. They
usually mess seven or eight together, and are re-
quired by the regulations to eat half-a-pound of meat
each man per day ; for which reason, although in point
of fact the regulated quantity is not always pur-
chased, yet, in order to admit of its being so, an ad-
ditional allowance of half a kreutzer or more, as the
case may require, is granted whenever the price of
meat exceeds seven kreutzers per pound. The in-
fantry, although with the least pay, are generally
the best provided ; as they are usually stationed ' in
towns, and are allowed to perform labour for indi-
viduals, by which they gain not unfrequently twenty
to twenty-five kreutzers daily, whereof however a
certain portion is paid to the captain, in regard of
the extra wear and tear of the clothes, occasioned by
this private labour. The cavalry are more generally
quartered, for the convenience of forage, in country
villages, where labour is less in demand ; and whe-
ther it be so or not, the time required in the care of
his horse leaves none for the trooper to apply tx>
298 AUSTRIA. [CH.
priTftte emolument. I may here notice a somewhat
coQGomitant comparative effect^ which is produced
in the comforts of the officers also, in the two
branches of the service^ The cavalry in Austria, as
in other nations, is considered to be the higher
branch ; but, divided into ^mall parties of men, each
with its one or two officers, occupying some petty
hamlet, ee^cially in Hungary and the northern
provinces, these officers are absolutely cut off from
all society or resource ; while those of the infantry,
congregated in the cities and towns, have abundant
communication among themselves, as well as with
the respectable portion of the inhabitants. I have
known fine highminded young men, with the rank
of cornet or lieutenant, members of the noblest fami-
lies of the empire, shut up in some wretched Hun-
garian village, twenty miles distant, in a roadless
cpuntry, from any one with whom they could con-
verse on a footing of equality, — the very priest of
the parish being as ignorant as the boors which
formed his flock. In the particular instances to
which I now allude, a taste for elegant literature
had got together in the desert abundant literary re-
sources, which obviously could not have been pro-
cured had not the parties possessed ample private
means ; but it is evident that, in too many instances,
this seclusion from the refinements and restraints of
society must lead to a state of gross indulgence, un-
favourable alike to the officer!^ and the men. In all
cases, indeed, a large standing army must be un-
X.] ARMY. 299
&vourable to morality, for the great majority of it
must in every country be in a state of celibacy : the
rule on which point in the Austrian service is this :
As regards the privates, four men only in each com*
pany are, generally, allowed to marry ; or, if already
married, to keep their wives with them. The wives
receive rations of bread, and the children are placed
and educated at the schools which the government
has provided at the fixed head-quarters of every
regiment. Of the officerSi one-third may be mar-
ried ; but the permission of the commanding-officer
must first be obtained — and in some cases this may
be capriciously refiised. An instance of this kind
was brought to my knowledge, wherein the colonel,
wishing to discourage marriages in his regiment^
unduly refused his consent ; and on the forced con-
struction that a remonstrance, presented by the of*
ficer aggrieved, involved a breach of military subor-
dination, actually placed him under arrest, with the
avowed view of breaking ofi* his intercourse with the
lady of his love. From this state of restraint the
officer made his application, in conformity with esta-
blished privilege, to the (late) emperor. The answer
was courteous, — -his majesty saw no objection to the
union ; — and the prisoner, liberated from his confine-
ment, led his bride to the altar. The lady in this case
was of noble blood, and of unimpeachable excellence
in all personal respects ; the colonel had no ground to
justify his disapproval ; but still I have heard some
doubts expressed, whether any great length of time
300 AUSTRIA. [CH.
«¥ould elapse, ere the bridegroom might find reason
to retire upon the pension list, as the result of his per-
severing opposition to the wishes of his commander.
One preliminary ' is required to the marriage of all
officers, and a very important one it is. They are
obliged to make a fixed mai'riage settlement, either
of money or rental of real estate, in accordance with
the rank they hold at the time of their uni<»i. The
minimum is, in the case of field-officers, 1000/.
sterling (10,000 florins) in money, or land yielding
50/. sterling per annum. In that of junior officers,
800/. sterling, or 40/. per annum. The annual in^
come is enjoyed by the married pair during their
lives, and by the survivor on the death of one of
them; and the principal is divided subsequently
among the children. This ordinance, although, in
forming one of the many checks to marriage in the
Austrian states, it may contribute in some small de«
gree to the number of irregular births, is framed in a
provident and benevolent spirit; and secures at all
events, without appeal to the cbarity of the state, a
decent though humble provision, in so cheap a coun-
try, for the widows of those who have passed their
best days in its service. The officers themselves,
during their lives, when invalided or superannuated,
receive pensions varying from the 20/. of the subal-
tern, and the 60/. of the captain, to the 120/. of the
colonel, and the 400/. of the cavalry general ; and,
whether invalided or not, they may look forward to
the gratuitous board, lodging, and education of theiir
X.J ARMY. 301
•
sons, in some one of those noble establishments and
military colleges which the care of the government
has provided for such purposes. For the private
soldier there are invalid hospitals on a very spacious
scale, but no one is legally entitled to pension from
mere length of service, unless he be actually invalided.
In reality, however, those who remain permanently
in the service, without availing themselves of their
right to discharge, are provided for in garrisons, or
in some subordinate station connected with the nu-
merous branches of the civil service, from which they
ultimately pass into the list of ^'Provisionalisten."
I believe it is just to the Austrian government to
say, that it allows no one to sink into destitute decre-
pitude, who has passed the days of his efficiency with
good character in its civil or military service.
I will only further add, that, in order to facilitate
the operations for any sudden emergency, it is the
practice of the government to keep always in reserve
a store of ready-made clothing (adapted in three
sizes), and of every species of equipment, for a
second number of men equal to that which they have
actually on foot — and often have they found the
advantage of their policy in this respect. In the year
1805, when the French were close upon Vienna, an
order was sent to Prague for the immediate levy of
50,000 men. Before the evening of the day on
which the order arrived, precepts were dispatched
to the various districts and feudal lordships, for the
proportionate number which each was to furnish.
302 AUSTRIA. [CH.
The levy was made forthwith. All tailors and other
clothiers were put in requisition to adapt the habili-
ments and equipments ; and in seventeen days from
the date of the imperial oonmiand, the 50,000 men
were already armed and equipped, (although of course
undisciplined,) at the depdts in Bohemia and Mo*
ravia. The dispatch was in this case useless. The
battle of Austerlitz had already decided the fate of
the war — ^but the system and the organization re-
mained ; and eight years later, when it was deter-
mined to make one great effort, — ^when Hungary
still restricted her supplies to 64,000 men, — ^when
the rest of the empire was limited to a portion only
of its present German provinces and military fron-
tier, — ^the mind is astonished at the mighty means
developed by a powerM organization, supported by
an attached and devoted people. The number of in-
dividuals (including the civil or commissariat esta*
blishment of the army) in active efficiency, and re-
ceiving pay from the war department in the year
1814, amounted to nine hundred and seventy thou-'
sand persons !
iVat?y.— As the Navy is subjected to the war de-
partment, this may be the convenient place for making
the few observations required on that very limited
branch of the service. The effective force consists of
four frigates of rather large size, and some brigs and
schooners, but no line-of-battle ship. It is a Venetian
X.] NAVY. 303
rather than a German marine. The duty is carried
on in Italian. The government have retained in its
service all the Venetian officers ; and hence, as these die
off only by degrees, and younger ones are very slowly
promoted^ most of the commanders, and even the sub*
ordinate officers, are elderly men. The admiral, Dan-
dolo, commanding the little squadron at the Darda-
nelles when we were there, was nearer eighty than
seventy years of age ; and Lieutenant Melchiori, the
kind and worthy commandant of the gaUiot in which
we sailed from Trieste to Patras, had already attained
his present rank, in those days when the doge went
proudly forth in his Bucentaur to wed the Adriatic.
The seamen are chiefly Venetians, Istrians, and Dal-
matians. They are volunteers engaged for eight
years, well enough fed according to their national
habits, and receiving pay of 20 kreutzers (8d. ster-
ling) per day. Were volunteers found to be insuffi-
cient, recourse would be had to a portion of the men
raised by military conscription.
Small as this navy is, there are still scarcely officers
sufficient for the discharge of its duties. While the
aged Venetians totter towards the grave, the promo-
tion of younger men is, from motives of economy,
rare and slow ; and officers are exchanged from ship
to ship to supply the vacancies that occur. The ad-
miral has in vain urged upon the government the
expediency of promotions, as well for the just ad-
vancement of actual officers as for the encouragement
of new ones. The government express their ap-
304 AUSTRIA. [CH.
proval of the admiral's suggestions, but prefer allow-
ing " things to remain as they are for the pr^foit" -
Persons who are aware of the burdeasoj^ form^
Ijties which encumber all the departments of. 8t9r#^
or accounts in our own service, and who h»v^ : mtrr-
nessed the harassing and vexatious official pcoQjpi^r
ings to which, after the lapse of many years^ Bi^slp^
officers are often exposed, will not apply ex^usjive;^
censure to the Austrian government for the adoption
of similar practices. The immensity of the flngUsh
expenditure, indeed, may be held up in pallia/tioQ « of
what is condemned in the smaller sei*vice of Austria;
and hence perhaps it is, that the bureaucracy of the.
Austrian service appears to u& so annoying . and ex>-
cessive. In it the quantity of writing is immen^.
No article however small, of stores or of medicine,^
can be used, without accurate accounts being rendered
through subordinate boards to the war department at
Vienna. If a morsel of canvass be taken to mend a
sail, a council must be held ; 8l proces-ver^ai written
out, stating the circumstances, the quantity of the
old canvass damaged, and that of new canvass j^-
quired; and this must be signed by all the offioerii
previous to its being sent in to the intendant. of,
marine at Venice or Trieste, whence in due time ifc
finds its way to the capital. The people at Vienna,
know little practically of naval affiiirs. The com-,
mission there examines the papers transmitted, endea^
vouring, probably often in vain, to understand them,;
and when any point occurs not fully explained, a cor*^^
X.] NAVY. 305
respondence ensues which frequently lasts for years.
The commander of the vessel is, for eveiy branch,
the generally responsible officer ; and I was informed
by one who had commanded a ship of war of the
smaller class, in which he was allowed no clerk, that
finding himself compelled to write from daybreak
to sunset for fifteen days together, on his returning
to port from a cruise, he gave up the command of
the vessel and sought removal to a subordinate sta-
tion in anotlier.
Of the quantity and character of nautical science
possessed by officers in this small service, lam not
competent to ofier an opinion. As to the men, their
characteristics are derived from those of the narrow
and dangerous waters, on which from their boyhood
they have mostly been employed. They are active,
temperate, and peculiarly sagacious in regard to
aquatic and meteorological phenomena, as such are
observed in the Adriatic and other neighbouring
seas ; but the experience of the peculiar local dan-
gers thereof is said to render them timid navigators of
the great ocean, where such timidity is misplaced.
Tliis defect will be removed as their sphere of action
is extended ; an object which the government pro-
fesses earnestly to cherish. Its commercial marine
is now seen in the Baltic and on the western shores
of the Atlantic, and has competed for local influence
even along more distant coasts. That Austria should
ever attain a rank of any importance among the mari-
time nations of the world, must appear to most men
VOL. 11. X
306
AUSTRIA.
[CH-
a fantastic imagination ; but, having already rendered
her port of Trieste the greatest commercial station of
southern Europe, and holding under subjection, as
she does, the Lion of St. Mark, she appears to aim
at restoring to the Adriatic some portion at least of
its former glory. She seeks in all directions to ex-
tend her infant trade : she strives to compete with
France for the steam navigation of the Archipelago
and the eastern seas; and, conscious of the inconve-
nience and insecurity of Venice, as a naval arsenal,
she has been occupied for some time past, at a great
expense of labour and money, in fortifying the port
of Pola, and in rendering it the great station of her
state marine.*
* In the first volume of this work has been given an accQunt of
Pola, and the operations there in progress for rendering it the poit
and arsenal of the Austrian navy.
XI.] 307
CHAPTER XI.
Finances. — Public Debt and Currency — Origin and Character
and the Debt — History of the Paper Currency — Finance Patent
of 1811— Financial Reform of 1816— Bank of Vienna— Plan
for Bedttction of the floating Paper, and its success — Debt bear-
ing Interest-^Old and New Debt — ^Amount of both— Sinking
Fund — ^Amount of actual liability of the Government — ^Existing
Currency both Paper and Metallic — Circulation of the Bank,
and its connexion with the Grovemment.
Prbtious to entering on the details of the revenue
and expenditure, some notices are requisite on the
subject of the public debt, and on the state of the
currency. The latter has become sound and healthy
after a long period of deterioration and embarrass-
ment ; and it is a matter of some interest to trace the
steps by which this great national reform has been
effected. With regard to the debt, it is not easy to
arrive at accurate results, while the gov^nment ab-
stains from rendering authentic accounts of its various
branches ; and the intricacy of these branches them-
selves, the transpositions from one to another, and the
erroneous notions which might be formed as to actual
amounts, from the different kinds of currency in
which various portions of debt have been contracted,
x2
f
308 AUSTRIA. [CH.
may induce the government to defer any general
financial stat^nents until they shall have perfected the
work now in progress, of extinguishing the small re-
mains of a spurious paper, and of consolidating die
whole of the debt into one or more general funda of
metallic denomination. In the meantime^ however,
although information is withheld with an avofwed
view to the avoidance of premature discussion and
the dissemination of error, still sufficient is allowed
to transpire, to form the foundation of general idei0S>
both as to the amount of the debt itself iand as to its
pi-essure on the general income of the empire.
The obligations of the state may be considered to
derive their origin from the reign of Maria Theresa*
who put into circulation a paper currency under tjie
aamd of Bankozellen (circulating notes),to the amount
of 12j000»000 florins. Her successor, Joseph IJ.,
added to these, in the year 1785, 20,000,000 more;
thus making a total of 32,000^000, in . a p^per
currency bearing no interest, and deriving its value
from the £edth alone of the sovereign » In the
short reign of Leopold II., which lasted only two
years, no ^Iteration was made : but widc^Jy different
w^ the case during that of Francis^ his son and sim>
cesser, who assumed the imperial diad^n in 1792^
wk^n the French Revolution had already burst forthj
and whose reign was afflicted with disastrous ware
which riaged with no very long pi^riods of intermisn
sion, until the ultimate occupation of Pari^ in 18144
To me^t the expenses of these CKhausting conBipi^i
XI.] FINANCES — DEBT AND CURRENCY. 309
in which successive hostile invasions, and the forcible
disjunction of province after province continually
diminished the regular revenue, the expedient adopted
by Maria Theresa and by Joseph afforded an example
too inviting to be resisted. Year after yeai- additional
sums of paper florins issued from the treasury, until,
in 1811, it was found that the amount of Bankozellen
in forced circulation exceeded a thousand millions of
ilorins (1060,798,753). These excessive issues had
been attended with their natural results-^-*an enor-
mous rise in the nominal value of commodities as paid
for in paper, and a corresponding depreciation of the
paper florin as compared with that in metal — ^for it
is to be especially observed, that the government,
although pressed to these issues by imperious neces-
Bitfy were so far sincere, as never to pretend that the
paper retained its metallic value. On the contrary,
it allowed paper and metal to be freely exchanged
between individuals according to their own ideas of
its relative value ; and a weekly statement of the
amount of depreciation, as computed by the brokers
from the actual transactions on the exchange, was
published in the State Gazette. In 1811, when a
few years of hollow and most impoverished peace,
consequent on the union of Maria Louisa with Napo-
leon, had given breathing time to Austria, it was
determined to make an eflbrt towards rectifying the
currency ; and indeed it wad high time to do so, for
the depreciation in the market had now feadhed
eighty to eighty-five per cent. ; and the hope there-
310 AUSTRIA. [CH.
fore of being ever again able to add further issues to
the existing paper was utterly abandoned. It was
decided that the paper now afloat must be cleared
away ; but, inasmuch as the greater part of that
paper had been issued from the treasury, not as of
metallic value, but at the rate of market value exist-
ing at the time of each issue,* it was argued that the
holders had no just claim to metallic reimbursement.
Under these circyimstances appeared the ordinance
termed the Finanz Patent of \Slly at a period when
the depreciation had reached to rather beyond eighty
per cent., or, in other words, to four-fifths of the no-
minal value ; one hundred florins of paper being in
the market equal only to twenty florins of metal. The
* The earliest issues were made as in florins of metallic value,
the florin being that which is more peculiarly used in the Aus-
trian States under the name of Convention Money, (coined in
pursuance of a convention with the Elector of Bavaria,) which is
worth two shillings sterling. All the issues however, or nearly
all, after 1792, were made at a depreciation, which went on gra-
dually increasing until it ultimately reached eighty or ninety per
cent. To understand the eflect of this, let us suppose the depre-
ciation in the market to be sixty per cent. ; in other words, that
forty florins of metal would purchase 100 florins of paper. If
the government at this period had to pay for a service or a com-
modity worth four pounds sterling, it would make the payment
either in metallic pieces of forty florins, or in its own paper notes
for loo florins ; and hence arises the argument, that in redemp-
tion of those notes, it was not bound to pay 100 florins of metal.
Had the notes remained in the hands of the original takers, and
the redemption been made in the quantity of metal which each
note was really worth at the time of its issue, the argument
would have been just.
XI.] FINANCES — DEBT AND CURRENCY. 311
ordinance annulled in toto the circulation of the exist-
ing paper, and declared the intention of the govern-
ment to redeem the whole of it at its then market
value of one-fifth of nominal amount ; not, however,
by metallic payments, but by the issue of a new paper
now termed einlosungschein, which accordingly ap-
peared soon afterwards, to the amount of 21 1,159,750
florins. The convenience attached to this paper for
practical use, and the supposition of its being then
equal in vajue to metal, raised it at first to a small
premium which tempted the government to issue
about forty-five millions more of florins, in a paper
termed anticipations'-schein ; but in a very short time
these currencies fell to a discount, and were poured
in upon the government in payment of taxes. To
meet this new difficulty, the anticipations- schein of
forty-five millions was called in and exchanged for
oilier notes, and within two years two ordinances were
passed, the first reducing the einlosungschein'to three-
fourthsy and the second to one-half of its nominal
value. Great public disarrangement and consider-
able private distress were the result of these acts;
and the evil moreover went on increasing, for, as the
exigencies of the state pressed upon it, further and
enormous issues of einlosungschein paper were poured
out from the treasury, in addition to those already in
circulation, and thus of course creating augmented
depreciation. Desperate as was the expedient^ the
government had no other. All Europe was in arms.
Austria was compelled to bear her part, first as the
312 AUSTRIA. [CH,
ally of NapdboQ^ and tiitarwards as that of Ruetsia
and Ekigland. ELer popidatkm had^ by the oessions
to France^ been cedoced to within tvp^enty. milMons,
wheveof more than one-half, the Hungarians and
Trwsylvaniane^ stood on their comtitationaL right
of resisting any increase of taxation beyond those
payments which varied not in peace or wftr ; and
from the other provinces, impoverished by long con-
flicts and successive invasions, it was impossible to
raise further supplies. Private sacrifice^ had been
pushed to the uttermost ; the utter insolvency 4)f the
government could not be disavowed; and notUng
but the coherent principle of national attlidiment
could at this period have kept together unchanged^
the. fabric and institutions of the Austrian motiarehy.
.The triumphant pacification of Paris crowiied the
gmnd European conflict. The congress of Vienna
aesured to Austria a large and important accession of
territory; and peace, foreign and domestic, being
now to all appearance firmly establi&bed, the govern-
ment undertook, in 1816, its last financial reform.
The paper then in circulation had increased in
amount from the 211 millions of 1811, to ab(ftit 650
millions of florins ; and its value had again fallen to
b^weeai 70 and 80 per cent, discount ; in other words,
100 florins of paper being only worth 30 florins of
n^etal.'^ But the expectation that an endeavour
♦ 'this paper was and is known by the various appellations of
einlOsungschein, scheingeld, papiergeld, and most usually Wiener
wdkrung^ (Vienna currency,) and hence all sums designated i
XI.] FINANCES — DEBT AND CURRENCY. 313
would be made to dear it away caused in 1815 and
the following year some small rise. In the new fi-
naadal measure a filed value was giten to thi^ fttfei,
of 40 per cent., or tworfifths of its numerical tldu^,
100 florins of ike paper being declared to be worth
40 :florin8 of metal ; and on this basis the operaitions
iwere enacted, to clear it away by degrees froni circula-
tion. The great engine to be employed was the Bank
df Vienna^ now (1816) instituted for this and other
' nerdonal purposes, and which has effectually answered
tife objects of its creation. The proprietary shares
were 50,000, of 1 ,000 florins cm. (or metallic curren-
cy) each, which amount was required to be paid up in
8,000 florins of paper (equal at the now fixed stand-
ard of two-fifths to florins 800 cm.), and the remaining
000 florins in actual metal. The 200 florins of metal
per share, constituting on the whole florins 10,000,000
CM., or one million sterling, was to remain as the
trading capital of the Bank. The florins 2,000 w.w.
of paper were to be cancelled as they were paid in,
and debentures to be issued by the Government to the
Bank in lieu thereof for the metallic amount, namely,
800 florins, bearing 1 per cent, metallic interest,
which would be equal to2i per cent, thereon, if paid
in paper. On the formation of this institution the
Gorernment put forth several ordinances. By one of
tfaem it bound itself never again to issue a paper to
serve the purposes of money, imder any denomination
that compntation have affixed to them the letters w.w. ; while the
metallic currency is designated by cm. (Convention Munz).
314 AUSTRIA. [CH.
whatever ; bat, in die event of any future pressure or
emergency, to provide other means of supply, without
interfering with the currency. By another it defined
the constitution of the Bank ; conferred on it e;j:clu-
uve privileges as a bank of issue and deposit through*
out the hereditary states, with the faculty of esta-
blishing branch banks in the provinces ; and assigned,
•«— as security for the advances it should make to the
Government in issuing its own notes under certain
regulations to take up the paper in circulation, — the
indemnity to be received from France under the
Treaty of Paris, certain other assets at the disposal
of the crown, and a general mortgage on the Govern-
ment mines. By a third, the new bank-notes were
ordered to be received as cash by the various depart-
ments of the Government, without however rendering
them a legal tender as between individuals. In a
very short time the whole of the 50,000 shares were
taken by the public ; and thus 100,000,000 florins of
the paper were at once withdrawn. Of the remain-
ing 550,000,000 florins, a considerable portion was
funded into a stock, bearing one per cent, interest in
CM., and thus placed, in regard of interest, on the
same footing with that paid in, in part of the Bank
shares. The remainder was left temporarily in cir-
culation; but under an arrangement that a certain
amount of it should be annually bought up by the
Bank, and burnt, until the whole should be cancelled ;
the bank receiving a fixed sum from the Government
for that purpose. The working of this great mea-
XI.] FINANCES— DEBT AND CURRENCY. 315
sure has been eminently successful. The aecumu-
lated paper which had been in 1816 computed at
658,714,438 florins, was within the next two years
diminished by 200,000,000 florins. The annual
reduction has ever since been steadily followed up.
In 1830, the amount outstanding was less than
80,000,000 florins w-w. ; in 1837 it was reduced to
about 16,000,000 florins w.w., or about half a mil-
lion sterling, which has since become extinct, or will
very shortly disappear. The new bank*notes (bank-
noten) in sums of from 5 florins (10*. sterling) to 1 ,000
florins (100/. sterling), have become the common
currency ; and these, being always convertible into
cash, and being a legal tender to the Government,
though not to individuals, cannot fall below their
metallic par. Indeed, from their superior conveni-
ency as a medium of payments, we were obliged, on
entering Bohemia from Saxony, to pay a premium of
two per cent, in order to obtain them.
The government paper hitherto considered, the
old bankozellen, the einlbsungschein or Wiener wUh-
rung, &c. was never understood to bear interest. It
could hardly be said to form even a debt of the
number of metallic florins which it bore impressed
on its face, since the government itself admitted the
existing market rate of depreciation, and paid it
away at that rate, whatsoever at the time it might
be. It was a spurious and unstable currency, created
for a temporary purpose by a then insolvent govern-
ment ; but it had not the effect of altogether banish-
316 AUSTRIA* [CH.
ing coin from the circulation, since, as we have seen,
the government did not attempt by edict to give it a
greater value as against metal, than that which
it actually bore by the free consent of those who
received it.
We come now to the obligations of the state hear^
ing interest^ and which may, in a stricter sense, be
called the National Debt. This may be divided into
two parts ; the old debt, that existing previous to the
year 1815 ; and the new debt, that contracted sub^
sequent thereto : but as no accurate accounts of
either of these have been made public, and as the
transfusions from the old to the new have been at-
tended with a good deal of compUcation, I shall not
attempt more than to convey some general ideas in
regard to them.
Jt was in the year 1816 that the government de«>
termined to undertake the complete financial reform.
We have seen the measures adopted, through the
instrumentality of the then created hank, for the
extinction of the spurious paper currency. AtlJie
same period, or in the following year, it first put
fourth those ordinances respecting its other obligations,
which have laid the foundation of the high financial
credijt it now enjoys. The debt of the state bearing
interest was fpund to amount, in 1816, to a nominal
capiU^l of about 630,000,000 of florins ; the greater
part of which had been originally contracted at an
interest of five per cent., but which interest was paid
in the paper money, subject to the discount of 60, 70,
XI.] FINANCES — DEBT AND CURRENCY. 317
or 80 per cent This was the old debt. Tlie new
laf^it^ subsisting only in metallic currency, commenced
witii a loan in 1815, of 22,205,450 florins, and has
since been increased by annual transfers of a certain
portion of the old debt, and by sul)sequent loans con-
tracted in Austria, Holland, and England. The
whde amount of the new debt is stated to have been,
in. the year 1831, 273,000,000 florins, including
66,000,000 of florins brought hither from the old
debt, and which cancelled probably more than
160,000,000 florins of nominal amount thereof. This
new debt has, as just observed, been since increased by
the annual trani^ers, and by subsequent loans, among
the last of which was that of 1833 for 40,000,000
florins aM«, and another in 1835, for the same sum.^
The instrument created for the reduction and ex-
tinction of the debt> was a sinking fund, on the prin-
ciple of tlmt formed by Mr» Pitt in England, and
which commenced its operations at Vienna in 1817.
Its original endowment was about 50,000,000 of
florins, supplied in good measure from the indemnity
fund received from France ; and it has since been
increased by the perpetual investment of its own
accruing interest, as well as by an annual grant from
the (inance department, and . a reserved proportion of
subsequently contracted loans. Frcmi an account
now before me, published by the Commissioners of
the Sinking Fund up to April 1837, its progress
* A new loan af nearly the same amount has just been con-
ckded.— 1839.
318 AUSTRIA. [CH.
appears to have been steadily carried forward from
the time of its commencement, and to have been very
effective. The total svaa of stock stated to be with*
drawn by its means from circulation was, 242,016^01 1
florins of the new debt; 120,606,518 florins of the
old debt ; and 12,335,612 florins of other obligations :
but of these sums, 104,144,941 florins of the oLd
debt, and 68,292,722 florins of the new debt, have
been, in pursuance of the constitution of the fund,
totally extinguished^ as they were bought in or re-^
deemed. The actual amount of mtere^t-iearing
stock, therefore, standing at the credit of the €!om->
missioners was, in April 1837, 191,706,204 florins;
yielding an annual interest of 8,281,883 florins,
to which is to be added 1,888,450 florins of do-
tation from the finance minister, making a total of
10,170,333 florins cm., or 1,017,033/. sterling, ap-
plicable in that year to the redemption of the debt.
The principal action of the Sinking Fund is on
the Tievo debt ; but the new debt is itself, to a con-
siderable extent, composed of transfers from the old
debt J and it is the intention of the government, by
such transfers and redemptions, so to annul the old
debt by degrees, that the whole of its obligations may
be consolidated into a fund or funds of metallic ciir-
ren^. In the mean time, there are now allowed
to remain of the old debt various stocks bearing
interest, at If, 2, 2^, 2^, and 3 per cent. ; all pay-
able on the footing of the old w.w. paper : there
are other stocks of the new debt bearing interest at
XI.] FINANCES — DEBT AND CURRENCY. 319
1, If, 2, 2^, 3, 3^, 4, 4^, 5 and 6 per cent., pay*
able in convention money ; and there are besides
sundry floating obligations : and there are moreover,
provincial debts, contracted by various provinces for
local objects, for which the provinces themselves are
indeed. prinuuily liable, but which, having been con*
tiBcted, and the amounts expended, under the autho*
rity of the government, might in case of necessity
form matter of equitable claim against the govern-
ment itself. All these varieties and complications^
in the absence of detailed official accounts, render it
extremely difficult to form a correct idea of what the
extent of debt really is. We know, however, that
the aggregate charge upon the revenue for the in-
terest of die debt redeemed and unredeemed, and
the endowment of the sinking fund, is at this time
about 45,000,000 florins cm. (4,600,000/. ster-
ling) ; and, although with much diffidence, I am
inclined to estimate the total amount of capital for
which the government is liable, at about 550,000,000
florins, or 55,000,000/. sterling.
Under the operation of the wise and salutary mea-
sures commenced in 1816, a sound and healthy
(mrren^ff has been established. With the exception
of that small portion of the old w.w. notes, which
will wholly disappear in a very short time, the only
paper in circulation are the notes of the bank, vary-
ing in amount from five to a thousand florins ; and
these form the general medium of payments. The
metallic currency is sound as far as it goes; but
320 AUSTRIA. [CK.
it is ncfitber convenient nor very ahnndant. Of
Austrian gold/ the ducats and other pieces strudc
in Hungary are little used for internal payments,
but are rather employed as an artide of export
and import, in adjusting the commercial balances
with other countries. The silver currency consists
principally of zwanzigers (pieces of 20 kreiltKers,
worth 8d. sterling), and of smaller pieces of 10 and
of 5 kreiitzers. The florin, being composed of 60
kreiitzers, is computed as equal to three zwanzigers ;
but, as an Austrian coin, it is known only at the
mint and in private cabinets. The only silver pieces
of larger value than the zwanziger are Saxon, Ba«^
varian, and other foreign coins, all of which have
usually a fixed value in Austrian florins and kreiit-
zers. Thus the currency, whether of paper or of
metal, is a sound one, and entirely on the footing of
convention-money : and in this cm. currency are
kept all the accounts of the government depart*
ments ; and of the bankers, merchants, and larger
dealers, always in the capital, and often in the pro<^
vinces. It is a work of time and difficulty, however,
to alter the habits of a people as to their domestic
calculations ; and hence, although the old paper has
nearly disappeared, yet in it (the w.w.) do the
great body of the lower classes in the capital, and
even the larger dealers in many of the northern pro-
vinces, still keep their accounts. The tavern-keep-
ers and retail-dealers in articles of food, almost
invariably present theif bills, even at Vienna, in
SI.] FINANCES— DEBT AND CURRENCY. 321
the w.w. ; and as these bilk must be paid in coin or
notes of the cm. ciu-jpeney, the difficulty and eou*
fuMOO of calculating the one kind c^ florin and its
aliquot parts into the other currency is beyond belief.
It is to be hoped that this confusion will gradually
cease ; ami, when we compare the convenience of a
common standard, and the soundness and excellence
of the Austrian currency, with the extraordinary con-
fusions and depreciations of that existing in all the
other German states except Prussia, it is greatly to
be wished that by general consent the cm. stand-
ard of Austria should become that of the whole Ger-
man coins^.
One point only as to the currency remains to be
considered ; and that is, the position of the bank on
whose security the current paper rests. The sub-
scribed capital is, as before stated, 50^000,000 of
metallic florins, of which amount about one half may
be considei^ as permanently advanced to the govern*
ment^and thus forming a debt due from it to the bank*
The extent of the paper in circulation depends on the
quantity of bullion and securities in the coffers ; and
it has been estimated as averaging about the sum
owing by the government, viz., 25,000,000 florins^
or 2,500^000/. sterling; but as no statement has
been rendered to the public, this must be taken
merely as a general approximation. As in all other
countries where a national bank exists, the bank of
Vienna is so far involved with the government, as
holders of its securities, that were the government to
VOL. II. Y
322 AUSTRIA. [CH.
fail in its public engagements^ the bank would be
necessarily and deeply implicated ; but still it must
be regarded, like the Bank of England, as an essen-
tially distinct and private establishment— one most
eminently useful and advantageous to the public, —
and hitherto conducted on principles so sound and
sagacious, that its shares have risen to a premium of
40 and 50 per cent., while its paper enjoys the most
perfect credit.
xii.] 323
CHAPl'ER XII.
Finances continued,-^ Actual Income and Expenditure •—De-
tails of both — ^Various Branches of Income. — Direct Taxes —
Land-tax — ^Its History — Cadaster — House-tax-— Tax on Trades
and ProfessionB— Personal Tax — ^Tax on Inheritances, ftc.—
Mode of Collection. — Indirect Taxes — Tax on consumable
Articles — Customs — Observations on Contraband — Other
Items of indirect Taxation.
Although no public accounts are rendered of the
increase and expenditure of the state^ yet the govern-
ment have always found it necessary to communicate
in general terms the actual position of the finances to
the principal bankers and capitalists of Vienna ; and in
the year 1835, the following was, in round numbers,
the understanding which prevailed «mong those gen-
tlemen upon this important subject. The revenue was
estimated at 130,000,000 of florins, or £13,000,000
sterling. The expenditure, exclusive of the war
department^ was computed at about 87,500,000
florins, which was thus composed: interest of the
public debt 40,000,000 florins ; civil administration
44,000,000 florins ; expenses of the Imperial family
and establishments 3,500,000 florins. Thus there
would remain for the war department the sum of
42,500,000 florins ; and, if the expenses of that de-
partment could have been kept within that limit, the
Y 2
324 AUSTRIA. [CH-
revenue would have equalled the expenditure. What
the military expenditure actually was, was a matter
rather of conjecture than of accurate knowledge, but it
was conceived to be little, if at all, short of 60,000,000
florins;* and hence resulted an annual deficit of
nearly 20,000,000 florins, or £2,000,000 sterling,
which gave rise to the necessity for repeated loans.
In the year 1835 such a loan was raised to the amount
of 40,000,000 florins, which was procured at an in-
terest of about four per cent. : but the contractor^
took that opportunity of requiring a specific engage-
ment from the crown, that the military establishment
should be forthwith reduced, as pressing too heavily
on the finances of the state ; and, as soon as circum-
stances would permit, it was understood that such
reductions were made, as to have eflfected a consider-
able saving in that branch of the expenditure.
Since the year 1835, great improvements have
been eflfected, and others, yet more important, are in
progress, the nature and bearings of which I shall
presently notice. With a view, however, to the pro-
per understanding of the subject, I deem it desirable
first to present to the reader certain oflicial state-
* Hungary furnishes a force of 64,000 men to the army, and
the fixed sum of 5,000,000 florins for, or towards, its support.
In many financial accounts this sum is kept apart from the Aus-
trian hudget, hut the results are not affected therehy. If the
5,000,000 florins were thus deducted from the sums ahove, the
military expenditure would appear reduced hy that amount, hut
so would the revenue also, in which the Hungarian contribution
is comprehended.
XII.] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 325
ments which I was allowed to transcribe and to com-
inunicate> and which^ although referring to die year
1834, will, with the explanations appended to them,
illustrate all the material items comprehended in the
Austi'ian financial system.
The public income for the year 1834 (and there
had been little variation for some years before) has
been stated at about 130,000,000 florins. In that
year, 1834, the statements which I have inspected
represent it to have been thus composed : —
FLORINS.
Direct Taxes, exclusive of Hungary • . 48,191,110
Viz. : — FLORINS.
Grund-steuer, or land tax . 38,981,954
Haus-steuer, or house-tax . 3,859,118
Erwerbenateuer, or income-tax on
trades . . . 2,498,234
Personal steuer (now discontinued) 1,301,451
£rb-8teuer, tax on inheritances 819,160
41,531,911
N.B. The expenses of collection are stated to
be 1,102,906 florins, which sum, probably,
with some small arrear, creates the difl^er-
ence between the two totals.
Indirect Taxes , . . 42,001,950
Viz. : FLORINS.
Verzehrung-steuer, tax on consum*
able articles . • 11,841,341
Zollen, customs (including the leaden
stamps on goods) . 12,031,692
Stamps . . . 3,232,048
Tax on processes, and on official in-
comes . . 1,882,110
Fl. 34,993,191 90,805,060
86 AUSTRIA,
LCI
FI4>ftfNS.
FU)&1VS.
Brought forward .
•
34,993,797 90,805,060
Lottery
■
3,363,682
Post-office — Letters
•
1,417,362
„ Horses
•
376,952
Barriers
•
1,854,157
42,007,950
Monopolies
»
• •
28,198,512
Viz. :—
FLORINS.
Salt
•
19,404,807
Tobacco
•
8,784,376
Gunpowder
•
9,329
28,198,512
Domains
•
•
3,460,666
MiNBS
•
• •
1,952,410
Hungarian Revenue
•
• •
5,330,000
Viz.:—
Contribution, or land-tax on the
peasant lands
•
5,000,000
Toleration tax on Jews,
» Bishops
tax for fortresses, Zips
towns, &c.
supposed
•
336,000
5,330,000
Fl. 129,746,648
With respect to the ea^penditure, as given before
in round numbers (page 323), the first item, the
interest on the public debt, requires no special
notice. Of the last, the expenses of the Imperial
family and establishments, it will be observed that
its amount is far from considerable. In fact.
XII. ] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 327
the personal allowances of the Archdukes are only
6000/. sterling per annum to each. Those princes
hold however various military or civil appointments
affording income, and most of them have large pri-
vate estates. The Emperor himself has separate
domains, the income from which, forming his private
personal treasure, is increased from various sources;
such as the income of lapsed Hungarian estates until
re-granted, the revenue to a certain extent of vacant
Hungarian sees, fines on new dotations, &c. &c.
Whatever be the extent of this treasure, the simple
and unexpensive habits of the Imperial family require
no very large application of it to personal luxury.
Much is devoted to benevolence, and to the promo-
tion of the arts and sciences, and more probably
accumulates as a fund to be employed in any specific
emergency. In the disastrous periods of the wars
with France, the private treasure was put largely in
requisition for the public service, and, as it is believed,
it was, in 1814, almost wholly exhausted. The in-
termediate item of 44,000,000 florins comprehends
the entire civil establishment ; and of this I am en-
abled to give the following details for the same year,
1834:—
FLO&INS.
Finance department • • • 14,619,220
Imperial chancery (including 1,004,350 florins
for diplomatic service) . . 1,801,168
Police department . . . 1,643,504
Military expenditure, induded in the crvil de-
partment • * • • 2,586«306
20,650,198
328 AUSTRIA. [CH.
FLORINS.
Brought forward 20,650,198
Department of public audit • • 2,703,723
Justice
Establishments of the Court
Ckmncil of state
Kataster
Local administrations, including public works, in
the German provinces . . 8,774,066
Do. in the Province of I>ombardy 2,987,935
Do. in the Province of Venice 2,580,169
4,708,734
1,461,139
282,282
69,344
44,217,590
In looking over the preceding enumeration, I have
some doubt whether the 1,461,139 florins given as
expenses of the Court establishment, and which are,
in good measure, the salaries of officers and attend*
ants, be not already included in the 350,000/. ster-
ling (3,500,000 florins), previously set down as the
expenditure of the Imperial family establishments. I
have also reason to believe that, although the expense
of the kataster is here stated at less than 7,000/. ster-
ling, the actual expense it occasions is nearly three
times that amount, the surplus entering into the
charge upon other departments. No charge appears
for public instruction, as the general expense thereof
is borne by the "Religious and Studien Funds."
The diplomacy of Austria, being charged at only
1,004,350 florins, or 100,435/. sterling, would appear
to cost less than that placed in the British finance
accounts under the same head, by no less than be-
XIL] finances — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 329
tween 70,000/. and 80,000/, ; but some part of tl)e
difference arises from pensions included in the British
account, and not admitted into the Austrian. The
large sums charged for local administrations, com-
prise the expenses of the various provincial govern^
ments, and the disbursements made in the provinces
for all public objects, except such as are specifically
stated under distinct heads. In them are included
the expenses of roads, bridges, canals, embankments,
and other public vi^orks ; the support of government
fabrics ; and disbursements beyond the receipts of
the Religious, Studien, and other similar funds, in
aid of ecclesiastical, educational, or charitable ob-
jects.
Since the year 1834 some material alterations
have occurred. No sooner had the decease of Fran-
cis removed those obstacles to improvement which the
terror of that amiable but self-willed sovereign a^
every species of innovation had hitherto presented,
than the Austrian cabinet directed its earnest atten^J
tion to the adoption of such reforms as could be
effected without too great a shock to the general ser-
vice. A commercial treaty was concluded with Engr<
land, which, although of perhaps less actual value to.
either party than has been sometimes represented, ia
of high importance considered as the first step to*
wards greater ameliorations, and towards a politicajl
rapprochement between two great nations whose in-
terests are essentially united. Concurrent with this
treaty, — and, it may be fairly presumed, in some de«
330 AU8TR1A. [CH.
gree, und^ the influence of British oounsels^ — the pro-
hibitory system, that had remained unchanged since
the days of Maria Theresa, has been abolished. Every
article of foreign growth and manufacture may now
be imported on an ad valorem duty; while certain re*
strictive regulations or privileges, which had greatly
interfered with the importation of sugar and some
other special articles, have been annulled. From
these causes the revenue of the customs has materially
improved, and has every prospect of a further and
very large increase. The verzehrung-steuer, or tax
on consumable articles, exhibits an increase, since
the year 1834, of 8,000,000 of florins, or more than
forty per cent. ; and although this tax is in many
respects of an objectionable character, yet its in-
creased productiveness may be fairly considered as at
all events evincing a corresponding augmentation of
general prosperity. In the products of direct taxa-
ti<Hi, and especially in the grund-steuer, there has
been little variation : but the other items of indirect
impost almost all exhibit, like the customs and ex-
cise, more or less of increase, except the monopolies,
which appear to have become less productive. While
the revenue has thus improved, the expenditure, in
the aggregate, would appear to have remained tole*
rably stationary. The interest of the debt, includ-
ing the sinking fund, has advanced to 40,000,000
florins ; and on some other heads there has been also,
I believe, a small increase : but, on the other hand,
the expense of the war department, including the
XII.] FINANCES— INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 331
navy^ has beea reduced ; and I believe I am not in-
correct in stating, as the apparent result of the
official accounts for 1838, that the income exceeded
1 44,000^000 florins, and the expenditure did not
reach 152,000,000 florins, thus leaving a deficit of
only about 7,000,000 florins, or 700,000/. sterling
to be provided for by an augmentation of debt.
This state of the revenue in 1838, as compared
ivith that which existed in 1834, affords a favour*
able view of the financial prospects of Austria. At
the same time it must not be forgotten, that since
1834 a series of loans have been raised^ — ^the last for
40,000,000 of florins in the present year, — the
amount of which, if applied merely to cover animal
d^cits, would raise a necessary presumption of
those deficits having each of them been little short of
2JdQ0y00O{. sterling. It is probable, however, that the
money so raised has not been wholly required for that
purpose ; that a portion of it may have been applied
for the extinction or reduction of such part of the pub-
lic debt as has borne a higher interest than the im-
proved state of public credit now demands ; and that
another portion may have been destined to defray the
very large extraordinary expenses attendant on the re*-
cent coronations and Imperial progresses, which would
appear not to have been brought into the accounts of
the regular civil expenditure. It is, moreover, to be
borne in mind, that, as the reforms in the customs
department were only brought into operation in the
course of the last two years, their beneficial results
332 AUSTRIA. [CH.
have not yet been properly ascertamed ; and, taking
all these considerations tc^ther, the recent loans can
hardly impair our conviction that the fiscal condition
of Austria is steadily improving, although they ought
to impress upon the ministers the expediency of juuch
more large and important improvements before that
condition can be soundly and substantially sofid.
I shall now briefly notice the various items of the
public income, as they have been detailed in the
earlier part of this Chapter.
Direct Taxes. — As was formerly the case in Eng-
land, and as it still is in I believe every other ooun*-
try of Europe, the land-tax, or grund^steuer, is the
most productive item of the revenue; and the mode
of its collection has been naturally regarded as an ob-*
ject of great solicitude by the Austrian governipent.
When, in the year 1706, the emperor Charles VI «
took possession of Lombardy, the sovereignty of
which was confirmed to him in perpetuity by the
treaty of Utrecht in 1713, he found that long-con-
tinued disorders had nullified the land revenue altc^e-*
ther ; and in that portion of his dominions, therefore,
he determined on first introducing a regular and un-
erring system, which might afterwards be extended to
the German provinces. The Milanese cadastro, that
exact survey and delineation of the entire surface of
the soil which has served as the model of the French
cadastre and the German kataster, was commeneed
by a commission of Chai-les VI. in 1718. Its pro-
XII.] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 333
secution was suspended by wars and other circum-
stances ; one commission following another, until
about 1760, when the plan first assumed a definite
fomi. It was still, however, imperfect : new circum-
stances arose to create new difficulties ; and it was
not until the year 1816 that this grand work can be
said to have been wholly completed for the Lombardo*
Venetian provinces. While these improvements were
in progress in Italy, the collection of the land-tax
in the German provinces received various modifica-
tions. In the feudal times which preceded Charles
VI., its levy had been an instrument of severe and
arbitrary oppression in the hands of the lords. The
crown was satisfied in receiving the amount of its
demand from the noble proprietors, leaving to them
the faculty of . its collection from their respective
tenants or robotters, as they thought fit ; and thus, in
fact, exempting from payment the lands of the nobles
themselves. This irregularity was modified as the
crown gained on the aristocracy ; and Maria Theresa
embraced the opportunity of those peasant insuri-ec-
tions which occurred in Bohemia and elsewhere, to
introduce some important practical amendments In
fiivour of the people. In a variety of edicts issued
from 1748 to 1756, and termed in the aggregate the
'*Theresian Rectification," she laid down rules and
principles for the collection, varying according to
local circumstances in different provinces, and aiming
rather at gradual improvement than violent change ;
many of which remain to this day in force. Her
334 AUSTRIA. [CH.
son, Joseph II., introduced by edict a totally new
system ; excellent in abstract theory, but so subver-
sive of every rule of property, so incongruous with all
existing institutions and habits, that his successor,
Leopold II., abolished it in totOy in compliance with
the request of deputations sent to petition him from
every part of the empire. On the abrogation of the
edict of Joseph, a new survey and valuation was made,
but in an inexact and often partial manner ; and with
it the general practice of the Theresian Rectification
was simultaneously restored. No further change took
place until 1817, when, after much deliberation, it was
decreed that the Italian cadastro should be extended
to all the German provinces ; but as this would be a
work of great length of time, since its expense would
not admit of the survey being carried on in several
provinces at once, a provisarium, or provisional
decree, came forth in 1819, which was to take effect
until the kataster should be completed. 'Diis provi-
sorium adopts much of the classifications and other
details of the abrogated edict of Joseph. It calls on
all feudal and other proprietors to render fuU accounts
of their own and of their " subjects' " properties, with
the value of their own feudal tenths, &c., to the imperial
officers of districts ; who, upon this information, aided
by their own surveys and other sources of knowledge,
form the schedules of the levies, which are executed
under the orders and rules of the stclnde of each pro-
vince. It is a considerable improvement on the
former methods in use, but is still imperfect, provi-
XII.] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 335
sional, and often unjust. The work of the kataster
has gone regularly forward since 1817, but it is as
yet only completed for Carniola, Carinthia, and par-
tially for Styria. Its labour and details are excessiye.
The scale of the mapping is about twenty-seven
inches for the English mile. Not only are the bounda-
ries of every minute holding marked, but the varieties
of soil within the same, and the different kinds of cul-
ture, are distinguished by separate colours. Attached
to eadi map, or rather portion of the general map,
is a schedule, containing the name of the proprietor,
the extent and description of surface, the nature and
average quantity of produce of all kinds, and a valua-
tion thereof, made as to corn on the average prices
during the fifteen years from 1785 to 1800, and by
certain fixed rules as to other articles. All valuations
and computations are made by certain goveniment
ojfficers, aided by uninterested inhabitants of the
place, and rectified if necessary by the proprietor,
who, on all subjects, is allowed an appeal. The tax
itself is a per-centage on the actual or computed pro-
duce of the land ; but the amount is not uniform, any
more than the mode of levy. The .crown makes its
demand on the stande of each province for a specific
sum, calculated on the proportion which it is esti-
mated that such province should bear, and the stande
then direct the levy according to the scheme of the
valuations it possesses. Wherever the kataster has
been completed the levy is just and effective ; but,
under the " provisorium," and still more uniler those
336 AUgTMA. [CH.
more aneient *' rectifications" which in some parts
yet exist, a good deal of inequality and injustice is
experienced. As to the actual amount of levy, it does
not in fact vary much from year to year. In thisf,
as in so many other respects, custom regulates what
law does not ; but, owing to the various modes of
collection, as well as to the complicated scales of de-
ductions and allowances made in different provinces,
it is difficult to form a judgment of the actual per*
ceutage on the value of the produce. I should be
inclined to state it, as a medium computation, at 24
to 26 per cent, on the assumed net value of the pro-
duce of the land ; but whatever it be, its amount to
the revenue will probably go on increasing as the value
of the soil itself increases, and as the new kataster
becomes introduced.
The Htms'Steuer is raised in one of two waysw — In
Vienna, in all the provincial capitals, and in some
other considerable places, it is taken on the actual
rental ; or, in cases where the proprietor is at the
Qame time inhabitant, the approximate annual value
is. taken by the government assessor, with right of
appeal in case of surcharge. From the rental or value
so ascertained, 15 per cent, is first deducted in regard
of repairs and diminution of value. On the re-
maining 85 per cent, the tax is raised, divided into
the " ordinary" tax of 13^ per cent, and the " extmor*
dinary" of 4i^ per cent. ; but this division being only
nominal, the real tax is 18 per cent, on the reduced
rental, or about 15^ pi;r cent, on the actual annual
XII.] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 387
value. Out of the large towns, the tax is levied in
rather a whimsical manner, according to the number
of its inhabited or habitable rooms or apartments
(wohnzimmer and kammem). For this purpose the
houses are divided into twelve classes: — ^the first
class, with thirty to thirty-five such rooms, pay 30
florins per annum ; second class, of twenty-eight or
twenty*nine rooms, 25 florins ; third class, of twenty-
five to twenty-seven rooms, 20 florins ; and so on to
the twelfth class, comprising houses of a single room
only^ which pay 20 kreutzers, or Sd. sterling. This
schedule is based on the supposition of the rooms
being all on the ground floor. If the rooms are
divided into two floors, the house enters the class
next below, and pays less accordingly. It is rather
curious to read the definition of the rooms liable to
computation for the tax : all sitting-rooms, ante-
chambers, libraries, and cabinets, as well as bed-
rooms, are rateable ; while, on the other hand, kitchens,
cellars, store-rooms, workshops, school-rooms, and
counting-houses, are not subject to be reckoned. It
seems evident that a tax thus levied must be liable to
great evasion and uncertainty, and, in its descending
to huts of a single room, little likely to pay the ex-
pense of collection.
The Erwerbe^teuer is a tax on all persons gaining
a livelihood by trades, professions, and handici'afts ; ma-
nufacturers, either as principals or servants, with the
exoqriiion of persons engaged in agricultural labour,
or raising raw products ; hired servants or assistants of
VOL. II. z
338 AUSTRIA. [CH.
tradegmeo ; public seryants of the state ; authors and
artists ; medical practitioners ; and also school-mas-
tars» or other teachers, in places with a population
of less than 4000 persons. The persons liable to
the tax are divided into five (or, in some localities,
only four) classes, paying not only according to the
nature of their business, but according to the mag-
nitude of the place they inhabit. In Vienna the tax
on bankers, wholesale dealers, and others of the first
class, is about 400 florins per annum, and on shop-
keepers and other traders from 20 to 100 florina;
while in places of less than 1000 persons, in some of
the provinces, the scale descends to 8, 4, 2, and 1
florin.
The Personal^steuer has been of late years dis-
continued; After undergoing various alterationa it
became at last a fixed capitation tax of 30 kreutoers
(!«• sterling), paid by every individual above fifteen
years of age, witli the exception of military officers
and soldiers in actual service, with their wives and
children, and persons with certificates of pauperism
firom the imperial authorities and the minister of the
parish. It was collected, at the end of March in each
year, from the head of each family, who was i)ound to
pay in regard of all his family and inmates ; fiH^eign-
eirs and Hungarian subjects, temporarily in Austria,
alooe excepted.
The Efb-^teuer is a small tax on certain inhmt-
ances, which, froin its very inconsiderable produce,
is not deserving of detailed account.
XII.] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 339
The edlection of the direct taxes, and more espe^
cially of the two principal branches, the land and
^use tax, is made, as I have already observed, on
asaesianents formed or regulated by the St'ande. The
collectors are either appointed by the crown, or, as is
the practice usually on large feudal properties, these
officers are named by the lord, and approved by the
sovereign. They collect, in such case, the taxes both
of the lord and of the '* subjects," the lord bearing
all expenses of collection, but not being liable for
defaults either in the payers (except for his own
private lands) or in the collector. The amount re-
ceived is paid, by the collector, into the chest of the
Stande, together with a list of the defaulters, if such
there be. On each defaulter a soldier is quartered
for a certain time (a few weeks), who must be lodged
and fed at his expense. Should the money not be
forthcoming within this period, a second soldier is
added, as an inmate for a few weeks longer; and if
the union ci these two unwelcome guests be insuffi*
dent to induce the payment, the goods of the de-
faulter are taken by distress, and sold at public
auction.
Indirect TAXES.-^At the head of these is ike
Verzehrung-'Steuer, a tax extending over all con-
sumable articles offered for sale ; and this, pressing
as it does so immediately on the poorest classes,
appears to be the most oppressive, as it is the nxMst
unpopular of the Austrian imports. It is collected
z 2
340 AUSTRIA. [CHw
at the entrance of the towns ; and to those whose, eyes
have not been familiarised with similar spectacles in
most of the continental countries, it is a painful thing
to observe each poor peasant girl stopped at the barrkr,
and her little basket examined, lest she might have in
it something liable to the impost. Pressing, however,
on every class, since all are consumers, the produc-
ductiveness of this tax has caused its imposition, not
in Austria only, but in almost every part of the con-
tinent. In France,* where, under the name of
Octroi, it is a municipal tax, its application is more
insultingly oppressive than I have seen anywliere
else : but in all parts it is bad ; perhaps less so in
Austria than in many others. In Austria, however,
it is at present the more felt, from its being of com-
paratively recent introduction. Until a few years
ago, a sort of composition tax, under the name of
Klassensteuer, existed, — a tax for which every person
* I have known several instances in a provincial town of
France where gentlemen, with their wives and families returning
in their own carriages from their country houses into the town,
have been stopped, and the carriage rigidly examined (the ladies
often obliged to descend), on the pretext that there might pos-
sibly be within some bottles of wine made at the country residence,
and brought in to be drunk in town! Such things I believe
never to occur in Austria : but the fact is, that in France, " la
police'* justifies every oppression, however exceptive and uncon-
stitutional; and in no country of Europe is there, within the
fh>ntier (I speak not of the facilities of moving beyond it, but
within the frontier), so much and such arbitrary infringement of
personal liberty.
XII.] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 341
I
was rated, not according to his real, but to his pro*-
bable or supposed consumption, estimated according
to his means. ' It was in fact an income tax ; for the
payment of which the payers were placed in different
classes, graduated according to their own returns of
income upon oath. The same objections, however,
were urged to this income tax in Austria, as with us
in England. Its inquisitorial character rendered it
hateful, and its tendency to produce peijury caused it
to be decried as immoral. In a financial point of
view, too, it had this great additional fault, that owing
to the laxity of the sworn returns, it became progres-
sively less and less productive. The Klassensteuer
was therefore repealed, and the Verzehrung-steuer
substituted in its place.
The department of customs requires, and is in
course of receiving, a complete revision. Contra-
band prevails at present to a vast extent ; and, con-
sidering the great range of frontier, it is indeed vain
to hope that in Austria any more than along our own
coasts, it can be altogether prevented ; neither can it
be expected, while Hungary refuses to bear a quantum
of taxation more proportionate to that of the German
and Italian states, that the duties can be equalised, or
the line of custom houses removed between that
kingdom and the other dominions of the emperor.
The general rules (subject to certain exceptions) have
hitherto been, that goods imported from Hungary pay
one half of the duties levied on similar goods from
other states ; that no article of Hungarian growth is
342 AUSTRIA- [CH.
prohibited ; and that, as regards manufactured goods,
Hungary shall receive Ihose of Austria on duties fixed
by the crown, and shall not be allowed to import any
from foreign lands, which are not importable into
the Austrian States. The great evil, however, of the
Austrian duties is, not their magnitude but their
uncertainty. When an article of import or export
has yielded productively, it has been too much the
habit, with a thorough dereliction of sound commer-
cial views, at once to double the duties ; thus baffling
all mercantile calciilation, and destroying, perhaps for
ever, some of the most promising branches of revenue ;
and when some time afterwards the effects of the error
have been perceived, and the former rate of duty
restored, it has been too late to remedy the mischief
created. Another fault is that laxity of practice, that
kind of real indulgence, which, as in so many other re-
spects, is combined with an ostentatious severity.
Foreign wines, cloths, porcelain, and manufactures of
almost every kind were, until last year, nominally
prohibited : but all might be received for private use,
paying an arf vahrem duty of sixty per cent. The
consequence was, that such foreign goods as were
really wanted in the market, were easily imported as
for private use, and were exposed for retail sale with
forged custom-house marks. Neither, as regards
sound commercial principle, might such importations
perhaps be deemed any considerable evil, did they
r^QfUy pay the adequate duties : but, by a not unusual
fraud of practice, one licence for a specific quantity
XII.] FINANCES — INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 343
or measure of goods was made to cover several suc-
cessive importations, one only of which paid the
duties ; and thus no inconsiderable portion of con-
traband trade passed through the custom-house itself.
A remedy to a certain extent for these and other
abuses has been already applied, in the abolition of
the restrictive system, and the admission for public
aale of all those articles which might be previously
imported for private use alone ; although an inspec-
tion of the new tariff will show that the duties them-
selves have not been reduced, and that such articles,
including almost every kind of foreign manufacture,
still pay a duty of 60 per cent. It is expected that
the fiscal regulations as between Austria and Hun-
gary will ere long undergo a complete revision ; —
that the tobacco monopoly will, as a monopoly, be
altogether discontinued ; — and that the import duties
on goods from foreign countries will be lowered, as
rapidly as the respect due to existing vested interests
will admit. With such ameliorations, united to the
adoption of a sounder and purer system of general
administration, there can be little doubt that the re-
venue of the customs will materially improve.
Of the other items of indirect taxation, little need
be said ; their titles sufficiently explain their nature.
The lottery y like that of France until the last year,
is in constant operation^ and may be supposed in
Austria, as well as everywhere else, to have some-
what of an immoral effect, by encouraging a gam-
bling spirit ; but this is the only species of public
344 AUSTRIA. [CH.
gambling allowed in the Austrian states. The
stamps extend not only to all writings used for an
official purpose, and to the public journals,, but to
all papers, printed or written, which are used as
announcements or notices, fixed on walls, or other-
wise circulated. The barriers or turnpikes are
somewhat heavy upon travellers in some parts, as
where a new bridge has been erected or a new cause*
way formed ; but in general they are lighter than
in Saxony, Bavaria, and several other parts of
Germany.
XIII.] 345
CHAPTER XIII.
Finances continued — Monopolies — Ghinpowder — Tobacco —
Salt — Domain9 — Mines — Tables of Gold and SilTer produced —
Extraction of Gold at Bocksteiny Mehadia, &c. — Quantity d
Gold produced now and at former Periods— Expenses of Pro-
duction, and Accounts of the Mining Department — ^Table of all
Metals produced in the Empire — Revenues of Hungary^ and
Observations thereon.
The monopolies are stilt, tohaccoy and gunpowder ;
the last of which is hardly worth notice, since it pro-
duces a clear income of less than 1000/. sterling a
year.
Tohacco is a more important branch of monopoly^
having yielded in 1834 a revenue of nearly 900,000/.
sterling, but which is now reduced by more than a
third. The monopoly does not exist in any shape
in Hungary ; but in every other part of the empire
tobacco can only be manufactured at the royal
fabrics, and only be sold by those retailing officers of
the government who are established in every town
and village. The raw article has been usually pur-
chased from the growers in Hungary, through the
medium of merchants, who have contracted for
the supply of certain quantities at fixed prices ; but
in 1834, the contractors having experienced heavy
losses from the failure of the crop in Hungary, and
346 AUSTRIA. [CH.
the consequent necessity of procuring the article
from other quarters, the contracts were not renewed,
and the government in 1835 adopted the new plan
of fixing a price, at which certain quantities, and of
certain qualities, should be received from any growers
whatever, if delivered to its agents in Pesth and other
Hungarian towns. It was not expected* when we
were in Hungary, that this experiment would an*
swer; and I believe tbe old system has been since
restored. From some rather curious details now
before me, I observe that the gross sum at which
the tobacco was sold in 1834 was about eight
times that of the original purchase ; but in this dif-
ference are to be comprehended all the charges of
carriage, manufacture, and various other heavy ex-
penses. One evil of this monopoly is the enormous
contraband that it occasions. The growth and
manufacture being perfectly free in Hungary, and
the price there only as one to eight, in comparison
of that for which the manufactured article sells just
across the open frontier between it and Austria or
Styria, these evils immediately result: first, the
support of an expensive and numerous body of
military Douaniers along the line ; — secondly, the
frauds on the revenue occasioned by the great quan-
tity actually introduced, in spite both of laws and
soldiers ; — and thirdly*, the rigid inspection to which
* It is but just to add, that we had, ourselves, no personal
experience of this evil. In twice entering Austria from Hun-
gary, our words were taken that we had no tobacco or other
XIII.] FINANCES — ^MONOPOLIES. 347
persons and merchandise are frequently subjected,
in passing from one territory to another^ both sub-
jected to a common sovereign.
The monopoly of Salt is the most important of the
wfadle, yielding in 1834 an income of little short of
2,000,000/* sterling ;♦ and it forms, with the Ver-
zehrung-steuer, the heaviest pressure on the com-
forts of the people. Unlike that of tobacco, the
monopoly of salt extends over Hungary ; and thus,
throughout the whole empire, salt can only be pur-
chased of the government vendors, established in
forbidden article ; and no examination whatever was made of our
carriage or effects at the frontier. On entering afterwardsy on
one occasion, the gates of Vienna, some examination was
gommenoed, l^ut it ceased on ova explicit declaration that we
had none of the forbidden article ; a declaration which, from
some misconception of our own, we had not in the first instance
clearly expressed. So rigorous however is the search for con-
traband tobacco, where suspicion exists, that a friend of mine
hiving returned from passing a few days in Hungary, his ser-
▼avit's room was searched in his absence at one of the principal
hotels in Vienna ; and the same occurred in the apartments oi
two English gentlemen, who had likewise lately arrived from
Hungary.
* I have stated this from my personal inspection of official
documents, but it has been recently stated to me, as coming also
from official authority, that the clear benefit to the revenue was
never more than 1,100,000/. or 1,200,000Z. The difference
probably arises from the smaller sum not comprehending the por-
tion of revenue derived from the action of the monopoly in Hun-
gary and Transylvania, the financial accounts of those states being
kept distinct. The amount I have stated comprises the whole.
348 AUSTRIA. [CH.
every town^ aud almost eyery village. There are many
sources of supply, but the principal ones are> the
mines of rock-salt which exist in Gallicia (at Wie-
liczka), in Transylvania, in Northern Hungary, at
Hallein Aussee Ischel and other places near Salz-
burg, and at Hal in the Tyrol. All of these belong
to the government, and are worked by its agents ;
indeed, a veia of rock-salt discovered in the lands df
any individual, becomes, under certain r^ulations,
royal property. In the maritime provinces, and
along the coast of Istria and Dalmatia, there are
works for producing salt from the sea-water^ which
belong to individuals ; but these are under the strict
surveillance of the government officers. Only a cer-
tain number of salines may be worked^ in pursuance
of licence annually granted : only a certain quantity
of salt may be made ; and this must be sold to the
government itself, at a regulated price. In places
very distant from the sources of supply, certain quasK
titles of foreign salt are permitted to be. imported from
abroad ; but the agents of the government must alcme
be the importers and the vendors ; so that the whole
sale and management of the article, in every shape,
is in the hands of the officers of the crown. It is
altogether a heavy impost, and has been more gene-
rally a subject of complaint than any other with which
I am acquainted. The selling price is regulated
somewhat in this manner : — A fixed sum is calcu-
lated as the expense of production : another fixed
sum is taken in regard of profit : to the amount of
XIH.] FINANCES — MONOPOLIES. 349
these tiro is added the actual expense of carriage^
which, on so bulky an article, especially in such a
roadless country as Hungary, is very heavy; and
hence the cost varies in every town according to its
distance from the mine. When we were at Pesth,
in 1835, the hundred weight, equal to 123 English
pounds, cost florins 7:20 (lAs. 8d.) ; while the
mere first cost of extracting the hundred weight
from the mine may be estimated at only 8d. or lOd.^
There is a good deal of contraband in this article
also, although less than in tobacco. It is smuggled
across the frontier from Wallachia into Hungary, and
likewise run up into the country from the coasts of
Istria and Dalmatia, and the Littoral of Trieste ;
but this contraband is of late much diminished, and
salt is comparatively, as well as positively, a much
more productive monopoly than tobacco.
Domains. — As to the domains, no further obser-
vation is requisite but that the lands here referred to
are such as are understood to belong to the gavem-
ment Others there are, and of greater value, which
form a portion of the private revenues of the crown ;
but of these separate revenues no correct information
* This cost price, however, either as to actual money paid,
or as to the profit derived to the government at the expense of
the consumer, is small compared to those which existed in Eng-
land until a few years ago, when the salt-duties were repealed.
The price at which the producer could sell a bushel of salt in
Cheshire, having paid all his expenses, and taken his profit, was
about Is, per bushel. The government duty was 20^. The charge
on the producer therefore was 2000 per cent.
350 AUSTRIA. [CH.
can be obtained. The latter contain several items of
receipt, fixed or casual, one of which is the income of
certain feudal properties in the interval between their
lapse to the crown and their re-grant to other holders.
The greater part of the seignorial lands in Hungary
are subject to such contingencies. They are held on
various modifications of tenure, and some lapse to the
crown on failure of male heirs in the direct line ;
others on such failure in collateral lines more or less
remote ; and others again on the occurrence of cer-
tain special contingencies. The sovereign is indeed
bound by the constitulion to re-grant all such lands
to some other *' well-deserving persons ;" but during
the period which he may require for weighing the
comparative pretensions of difierent individuals, the
income is paid to the private revenue of the crown.
Mines. — ^These are of far greater interest than the
dcHnains ; not for their value to the revenue, which is
very small, but as regarding the amount of increase
which they annually yield to the stock of European
circulation. The precious metals are not matter of
monopoly in the Austnan empire. The mines are
indeed in a considerable proportion the prc^^erty
of the government : but every individual is compe-
tent to work such as he may find on his own
estates, on the condition of yielding one-tenth part
of the produce to the crown. Before entering into
further details, I will place before the reader the
following table : —
XIII.] FINANCES — ^MINES. 351
Qold and Silver product in the whole Empire, from both public
and private Mines, in the following Years :—
Gold.
Silver.
1819 to 1821
both inclusive
t
marcs
39,386
marcs
120,659
1828
4610
80,860
1829
»»
4549
w
85,186
1830
»>
4516
»
84,639
1831
99
5558
>»
101,451
1832
99
5055
f»
95»442
1833
n
5218
n
92,234
1834
n
5311
w
93,062
The Vienna marc used in these tables is equal to
nine ounces Troy weight. One marc of gold is con-
sidered vrorth 366 florins 534t, or £36. 13*. 9Jrf,
nearly : <Hie marc of silver worth 24 florins, or £2. 8s.
Thus, the value obtained in the year 1834 was, in gold
1,949,137 florins, or £194,913. 14*. sterling, and in
silver 2,233,488 florins, or £223,348. 16*. sterling.
In the year 1834, the 5311 marcs of gold stated
above were produced^ 1288 from government mines,
and 4083 from private. The 93,062 marcs of silver
w&re 66,439 from the government mines, and 37,632
from private. From these data a sufficiently accu-
rate idea may be formed of the general proportion
of the one class to the other.
Almost all the gold, and nearly three-fourths of
the silver, are extracted from mines in the mountainous
regions of Transylvania and of Northern Hungary,
as will be seen by the following table of the quanti-
ties produced in those two countries for the years
352 AUSTRIA. [CH.
1832, 1833, 1834, compared with the account al-
ready given of the entire quantities obtained in those
years from the whole empire : —
Hungary. Transylvanim
Gold produced in 1832 raarcs 2267 2266
1833 ,. 2205 2862
1834 „ 2144 30e0
Silver produced in 1832 „ 65,384 5198
1833 „ 61,373 4321
1834 ., 61,987 5431
Deducting these quantities from the whole, the rest
of the gold is obtained partly from washings in the
sands, rivers, and torrents, in the south-eastern part
of Hungary near the borders of Wallachia,* and
partly from mines worked in the valleys of the Noric
Alps, at Bockstein, Rauriz, &c. in the* vicinity of
that supremely romantic watering-place Gastein. The
silver is found in combination with lead and other
metals, in the mines of Styria, Upper Austria, Bo-
hemia, and some other parts of the empire.
In the former part of this work I have had occasion
to mention our visit to the gold works of Bockstein,
where the metal, having been conveyed in the ore
from the neighbouring mountain, is obtained by pulve-
4
* Nearly all the rivers of Southern Hungary are slightly auri-
fevons. Gold is found in Uie «and8 of the Danube, the Marosdi,
the Nera, and the torrents of .the mountains near Orsdya< Some
little has been detected in the Drave, and in the Whit^ Korosch.
XIII.] FINANCES. 353
rization and washinss on a series of nearlv horizontal
planes, worked by machinery. In the splendid vale
of Mehadia, in Southern Hungary, we saw a process
of somewhat similar character : but nature had there
effected the pulverization, and man had only to take up
the mud or sand of the torrent, and by applying the
same sort of nearly horizontal agitation, to seek for
an aureous deposit, which however he very rarely
obtained. The rocky fissure through which the tor-
rent descends at Mehadia is of granite, quartz, and
crystalline limestone ; and the gold of Northern Hun-
gary is likewise chiefly, if not entirely, found in
quartzose rock.
Whether the quantity of the precious metals pro-
duced in the Austrian States eighty or a hundred
years ago, was greater or less than it is at present, is
a matter on which much doubt may be entertained.
The only accounts we have on the subject, those of
travellers, or of scientific men such as Baron Bora
and Ferber, were derived from partial and ambiguous
statements; and indeed the complicated manner in
which the records of the mining department are
kept, renders it very difficult, even where . these re-:
cords can be examined, to arrive at accurate results.
It is stated by Schwartner, that in the year .1 744,
which was a very productive one, 2429 marcs of
gold, and 92,261 marcs of silver were delivered 4o
the Hungarian Mint at Ki^mnitz ; and Born tell« us
of the gold extracted from Transylvania in his time,
amounting to from 2000 to 2500 marcs per aimum :
VOL. II. 2 A
354 AUSTRIA. [CH.
but I have litde confidence in the exact accuracy of
these statements, however consistent they may be with
probability. The tables I have given of the produce
since 1819 are absolutely accurate as far as the
government mines are concerned, and must be so
within a mere trifle as to the private mines also.
The difference between the two in point of precision
arises from this : that the amount produced in the
private mines is calculated from the tenths paid to
the crown ; and although the jealous superintendence
of the government renders fraud very difficult, yet
die quantities reported will naturally be rather below
than above the reality. Hence the aggregates ought
to be taken as a very closely approximate minimum.
We have seen, from these statements, the qnanti--
ties of metal produced, but not the expenses of pro-
duction ; and it is not very easy to arrive at truth on
this point, on account of the " montaniskicum," or
mining department, containing six branches, which
are very much mixed up together : namely, 1st, the
produce of the government mines, of the government
forges, and of sales of metals made to individuals ;
^d, the account of the tenths received from private
mines ; 8rd, the '' fabriken," or buildings, machinery,
and works; 4th, the coinage establishment; 5th,
the produce of stamps affixed to goldsmiths' and
jewellers' articles ; and: 6th, the administration of
those woods and lands which are attached to the
mines. It appears, however, on the whole, that not
only the works of Bockstein are carried on at a losi^.
XIII.] FINANCES — MINES. 355
but thut the same is the case as to the mining depart-
ment generally in Transylrania, notwithstanding its
evidently increasing produce of metal ; the balance
of los€ thereon (in Transylvania), having been in the
year 1834 no less than 112,671 florins, 11,267/.
sterling. The Hungarian mining department yielded
a profit in the same year of 278,081 florins. The
quicksilver mines of Idria, of 'my visit to which I
have given an account, are profitable ; so are some
royal mines of lead, silver, &c., in Bohemia; and
so likewise have the prospect of being some silver
mines in the Military Frontier,, which were first
worked in 1831, the produce of which accounts for
the sudden increase in the quantity of silver in that
and the following years, over those of the preceding.
I conceive myself, however, to be correct in stating,
that the whole profit derived to the revenue from the
entire mining department of the empu-e was, in 1834,
only 1,583,474, or 158,347/. sterling. The produce
of mines must always be in some degree a matter of
chance ; but, from the information given to me on
the subject I am led to believe that the revenue of
this department might' be, and probably will be,
greatly increased by the adoption of a more simple
administration, and the substitution of a more careful
and scientific and less extravagant practice in the
amalgamatic and other extractive processes. Before
quitting the subject of mines the following statement
will not be uninteresting : —
2 A 2
356
AUSTRIA.
[CH,
Mineral Products of the whole Empire^ including Hungary and
Transylvania^ for the Year 1 834, distinguishing between the
Mines belonging to the Government and those of Individuals,
Government.
Private.
Total.
Gold, marcs* .
Silver „ • • .
Quicksilver, quintals ,
Tin ., . .
Copper „ .
Lead Ore „ .
Zinc „ .
Iron ,, .
Ditto Cast „ . ,
Coal „ •
1,282
55,439
3,543
36
13,992
2,376
153
384,551
59,343
46,341
4,083
37,623
31
887
28,627
10,457
45
1,224,847
148,858
4,193,500
5,311
93,062
3,574
923
42,619
12,833
198
1,609,389
208,201
4,239,841
The total official value of the above minerals, is —
Produce of Government .mjnes . • 5,199^195 florins
Private do. . . • . 10,321,597
99
15,520,792
Or -e 1,552,079 sterling.
Revenues of Hungary. — ^The revenues of Hun-
gary, which I have set down at 532,600/. sterling, or
5,326,000 florins, form the last item of the Austrian
income. In revenue, as in all branches of govern-
ment, Hungary is a totally distinct kingdom. She
partakes in nowise of the general taxation of the em-
* The Vienna made used here, as before stated, is equal ta 9
ounces troy weight ; the Vienna quintal to 123 , English pounds.
The official valuation is^ — gold, per marc, 366^. 53^j^r. ;
silver, 24^. ; quicksilver, per quintal, 115^. ; tin, 45^, 26 kr, ;
copper, 51^.; iron, raw, 2 ft. 40 At.; Iron, cast, 8^. 37 kr. ; coal,
9/.
XIII.] FINANCES. 357
pire. She furnishes, by vote of her diet, an army
raised by conscription or recruitment, of 64,000 men,
cavalry and infantry ; and she grants for the pay^
clothing, equipment, indeed the total support of that
army, the fixed sum of 5,000,000 florins (500,000/.
sterling), which sum is raised by a kind of clumsy and
very ill-adjusted land-tax, from the class of peasants
or cultivators alone ; all nobles being exempt save as
they may hold peasant lands mider a superior lord.
To this fixed sum may be added about 1 60,000 florins,
raised as a toleration tax on the Jews : about 150,000
florins paid from episcopal benefices for the support
of fortifications ; and 16,000 florins levied on a pecu-
liar district termed the Zips Towns ; none of which
sums, however, are given with any confidence in their
exactness. This is the entire of the direct taxation,
and no officers of the crown are employed in its col-
lection ; — ^the county meetings, composed of all the
nobles of each county, raising the revenue by their
own officers, and handing it over to the royal re-
ceivers.
This is not, indeed, to be taken as the total sum
yielded by Hungary towards the budget of Vienna.
She furnishes some portion of the general items of
indirect revenue, given under the heads of customs,
stamps, lottery, post-office, and salt monopoly ; but,
upon the whole, her fiscal contribution, considered
with reference to her numerical population, is very
far below that of the German and Italian provinces.
The difficulties in the way of any considerable finan^
358 AUSTRIA. [CH.
cial alteration in Hungary are exceedingly great;
and the whole circunlstances of that kingdom are so
peculiar and so complicated, that it would be vain to
attempt an elucidation of them in a cursory chapter
on Austrian revenues.
In concluding the subject of Austrian finance, it
may be safely predicted that, should the government
succeed for a few years longer in the maintainance of
internal and foreign tranquillity, it will publish to
the world an annual budget, as detailed at least as
that of Prussia, if not so much so as those of England
and France. That this is not at present done, may
be ascribed to the causes to which I have before ad-
verted, — ^the expediency, before public discussion is
invited, of allowing some little further time for the
cicatrization of the wounds inflicted on the state by
the disastrous events of the wars with France ; the
intention to effect reforms in the management of the
mines, the monopolies, and other branches of re-
venue ; to diminish the expenses of the civil govern-
ment as far as this can be accomplished without
injustice to individuals ; and especially to reduce the
military establishment, so that the expenditure of the
state may no longer, as it now does, exceed the in<-
come.
Neither may these be the only motives for some
further delay. Of the direct imposts the produce
must remain imperfect, until the new valuations of
property, now in progress, are completed. In the
XIII.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 359
principal branches of indirect taxation, a vacillating
and temporizing policy has been followed, (united,
too, with a very expensive mode of collection,) in-
jurious to individuals, and unproductive of benefit to
the revenue. The commencement of the new reign
may form an important epoch. Substantial and effec-
tive improvements may probably be introduced;
and a sound commercial and financial system may
be gradually adopted, where shortsighted and inju-
didous expedients may have hitherto prevailed.
Until, however, this be effected, the government may
feel indisposed to challenge investigation into the
management of those resources on which the public
credit reposes, although conscious of the solidity of
the resources themselves, and strong in the confidence
produced by its strict observance of pecuniary faith
during the last twenty years ; and if it be actually
engaged in a course of progressive reform, which,
to be effective, must be gradual, it may wisely sup-
press those premature discussions, which would be
likely to interfere with the fulfilment of its salutary
dispositions.
360 [CH.
CHAPTER XIV.
Internal and Foreign Tradb — ^Natural Resources of Austria —
Table of Exports and Imports, with Observations — Products
and Trade of Hungary, &c. — Chief Articles of Export —
Wool — ^Tobacco — Silk — Obstacles to Foreign Trade — Fluctu-
ation of Duties, and Financial Errors — Defensive System
adopted by Neighbouring States — Physical Difficulties of
Internal Communication — Geographical Notice — Rivers —
Projected Railroads — Uncommercial Character of the Hun-
garians — Steam Navigation of the Danube.
Taking a survey of the whole of this great empire,
it may be justly affirmed, that no sovereignty in
Europe possesses natural resources so abundant, or
«o varied. The silks and oils of Lombardy and
Venice ; the fleeces of Hungary and Bohemia ; the
mineral riches of the German and Hungarian pro-
vinces ; the millions and millions of acres of the
richest s<rfl, in all parts (save in Italy) as yet but
partially cultivated, and in Hungary still in great
measure unconscious of the plough ; all- these, in a
dominion inhabited by 35,000,000 of people, are so
many inexhaustible sources of national opulence.
They require only to be developed by a wise system
of government, aided by internal and foreign tran-
quillity ; and whatever may have been the errors of
the past, it is but justice to the existing adminis-
tration to assert, that its anxious views appear now
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 361
to be directed to the fostering and improving all the
various branches of national prosperity.
First, let us consider the nature and extent of her
foreign trade ; on which I offer, as a prelude to the
remarks which may arise on the subject, the follow-
ing official statement with a few appended observa-
tions, evincing how little it is calculated to give
exact ideas : —
Value of Foreign Trade in 1834.
Imports. Exports.
German Provinces • . F1.61 ,981 ,390 Fl. 68,533,685
Italian Provinces . . 34,288,855 34,960,722
Hungary and Transylvania . 11,511,164 7, 598, 534
107,781,409 111,092,941
Here we see the value of imports and exports so
nearly balanced, as to show an excess of about
400t000/. sterling only, in the latter over the former.
All such statements however must be quite illusory^
where, as in the case before us« the computations of
commodities are made in official, not in real, value.
The transit trade is intermixed, too, with that which
actually rests in the empire, and no notice is taken
of the trade between Hungary and the German or
Italian provinces ; the consequence of which is, that
Hungary and Transylvania here appear to import
more than they export, which is true only as regards
their intercourse with the states of other sovereigns ;
whereas, if the dealings between Hungary and Austria
were taken into the account, the balance would be
largely turned on the other side.
362 AUSTRIA. [CH.
Austria aims at being a great commercial
country ; and the cheapness of manual lalxmr, to^
gether with her native stores of raw material, espe-*
cially wool» mlk, hides, and minerals, might seem to
afford her important means of becoming so. On the
other hand, the difficulty of her internal communi-
cations, and of her access to the sea, arising from
the mountainous character of her soil ; that tranquil
contentedness of mind, and indifference to the value
of time, which characterize her population ; and, as
regards Hungary, the anti-commercial spirit of her
feudal institutions ; all combine to create the belief,
that for a considerable time to come she will not
be in the list of large exporting nations. Her
native industry is still feeble, even in those branches
wherein she may appear to have the greatest natural
advantages. With Styria close at hand, the con-
tractors for the railway from Vienna to Raab are
actually importing the iron railwork from England,
although, besides the sea freight and the import duty,
the mere charge of carriage from Trieste to Vienna
will exceed £10 sterling per ton ; and the chains for
the bridge proposed to be suspended across the
Danube from Pesth to Buda mil be brought from
the same distant source of supply, although subjected
to a still more difficult inland transport. Of the
articles which enter into general vestiary or domestic
use, several are made of very superior excellence ; but
as yet, with few exceptions, not in larger quantities
,than to suffice for the home demand To encourage
and extepd these native fabrics, is a favourite object
XIV .3 INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 363
of the government. For this purpose, a substantially
prohibitory duty of sixty per cent, ad valorem^ is stiU
imposed (whether judiciously or otherwise is a question
too large to be here discussed) on all goods of foreign
manufacture ; while the import duties on raw materials
of foreign product, are very small, cotton paying only
Bs. 4d. sterling per cwt. of 123 English pounds, hides
1«. per cwt. ; cotton yarn of all numbers 3d. sterling
per pound, wool (of which some coarse is imported,
while the export is of the fine qualities) 1*. per cwt.
The trade between Austria and Hungary is regu-
lated on distinct principles, of which some notice has
been taken in a former chapter. No article grown or
made in Hungary, is prohibited in Austria ; but as
regards woollen, and some other manufactured goods,
the Hungarian article imported into Austria is sub-*
jected to much higher duties than the Austrian
article imported into Hungary. Silks, manu-»
factured as well as raw, are importable from Hun-
gary duty free ; but the Hungarians are an unmanu-
facturing people, and although Southern Hungary is
a country peculiarly adapted for the silk-worm, and
the government have held out every encouragement
for its culture, yet the silk manufactory at Pesth
(the only one I believe within the kingdom) is obliged
to purchase its raw silk almost wholly from Italy.
On other raw products (salt and tobacco excepted),
duties are levied according to a special tariff. The
general rule obtains, that those of Hungary shall
pay one-half of the duties levied on similar goods
364 AUSTRIA. [CH.
from other GO.untries» where such are legally import-
able ; but this rule hm mauy exceptions, and aito-
gether^ the ^Gommerdal relations between the two
branches of the emperor's dominions are on an un«-
settlied and unsatisfactory footing.
In looking over the lists of imports generally into
the whole empire, I observe among those of principal
importance, in the year 1834, cotton wool, imported. t6
the official value of 4,469,942 florins ; and cotton yarn^
7,992,276 florins. Of sugar and coffee, it is more
easy ta arrive at quantities ; and it appears that, in
1833, the importations were, of raw sugar, 380,687
cwt. ; refined, 1918 cwt. ; coffee, 77,980 cwt. ; the
cwt being equal to 123 lbs. English. Among the
articles of export in 1834, were Bohemian glass*
ware to the official value of 3,500,000 florins ; hemp
and flax, 4,500,000 florins ; metals, 6,300,000 florins;
timber, staves, and rags, in quantity sufficient to
load more than. 100 sail of vessels from the port of
Fiume alone ; and which, from their bulky nature,
are thus important instruments in the formation of a
commercial marine. The most considerable articles
of export^ are the silks and silk stuffs of
Italy, which were officially valued in 1834 at
23,275,793 florins ; and sheep's wool at that of
32,865,413 florins, or the same number of Viennese
pounds weight; the official value of wool being
one florin per pound. In the preceding year, the
quantity of wool exported had reached 36,589,205
Viennese pounds, or 297,473 cwt. English ;^ a«d
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 365
although there appeared thus a diminution of
4,000,000 lbs., it was confidently believed that the
quantity would again rise ; but whether such has been
actually the case, I have not before me any official
returns which enable me to decide. An increasing
quaxitity» however, is now annually taken by the
native manufactories in Gallicia, Moravia, and other
districts^ which are generally in a thriving and im-
proving condition ; and unless the flocks increase in
the same ratio, this must tend rather than otherwise
to dieck the exportation. England and France
have been among the chief importers of this wool,
which yields little, if at all, in quality to the finest
Saxon ; and of late, the Americans have also come
into the market, of which^ the first operation was a
contract made at Vienna in 1836, for 1,000,000 lbs.,
to be shipped at Trieste for the United States. Thi&
af^eara to be a great and improving source of na*
tioual wealth. There are already numbered in the
«mpire,.from 19,000,000 to 20,000,000 of sheep ;* of
* So enormous are the products of natural and artificial wealth
in. OUT own country, that, in judging of the resources of an^
foreign nation, comparison should be made» not with ourselves,
but as between one foreign nation and another. For instance,
in the article of sheep, the small region of England and Wales
alone, contained in ISOO (according to Mr. Luccocke, who is
deemed a good authority), 19,007,60*7 sheep. Whether the
number has since increased or diminished, may be doubted.
Again, of iron the quantity produced exceeds 800,000 tons. One
English iron* master turns out more iron than the entire kingdom
of Sweden ; and one English manufacturer constructs more steam-
engines than are made in the whole of France.
366 AUSTRIA. [CH.
which, about 12,000,000 are in Hungary and Traur
sylvania, roaming over the widely-extended pas-
tures of Princes Esterhazy and Bathyany, Count
Karoly, and numerous other large proprietors^
whose custom it is to form contracts with capitalists
at Vienna, by whom the fleeces are received in the
mass, cleaned and assorted ; and the larger portion
exported to distant countries under the general name
of Austrian wool.
The foreign trade of Austria, especially if that
be excepted which belongs peculiarly to the horn*
bardo- Venetian states, is thus far from important;
and it is not difficult to perceive that obstacles exist
to its extension, partly in the physical character of
the country, partly in the commercial policy of the
neighbouring nations, and partly also in the injudi-
cious measures of the government itself Of this
latter source of discouragement, the principal, as I
have before intimated, consists in the fluctuation and
uncertainty of duties, and the habit of levying in-
creased imposts on any branch of commerce which is
perceived to have improved. Such was the fatal
error by which the export of Hungarian tobacco for
the consumption of Bavaria, Central Germany, and
a good part of Italy, was lost for ever. Twenty
years ago, the supply to those countries was immense ;
when, in an evil hour, a large export-duty was im-
posed, which induced the Bavarians to commence the
cultivation of tobacco in their own territories, from
whence it has spread to various others around them.
The error was perceived, and the duty in great mea-
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 367
sure repealed : but the mischief 'was done, and the
culture of tobacco from that time forward has, even
in Hungary, gradually declined. A kindred error
was apprehended as probable, when we ivere at Fiume,
in regard to the export of staves ; a branch of com-
merce which, in a few years, had arisen to such an
extent as to have employed, in the year 1835, eighty-
nine Austrian, vessels, sailing from that and the
neighbouring ports alone. A new duty was then
projected, equally heavy in its pressure and absurd
in its mode of levy. Hitherto there had been a small
ad vuhrem duty on the export of staves, computed
by their number: but it was now proposed that
the duty should be increased, and levied by weight !
under which notable regulation, the charge for weigh-
ing, to ascertain the duty, was to exceed the duty
itself. The plan was suspended and ultimately mo-
dified ; but those must have been strange financiers
who could have ever conceived the idea of levying
a duty upon wood by weight ; and of doing it in such
a manner too, as that one-half only of the sum raised
should pass to the government, while the weigher
would receive the other ! Errors such as this could
arise only from great inexperience in commercial
legislation; and hence we may well believe that
with the increased intelligence and wisdom of the
present cabinet, they will never be again repeated.
Austrian ministers have too often thought, as some
twenty or thirty years ago the governors of more
commercial nations may have thought also, that in
tufittettof financd, the addition of three to three wo^ld
yield db^ ; until mtk surprise thdy hate seen that; the
product was but one^ if it did not vanish altogether.
As to- their intentions, indeed, for the cotntnercSal
prosperity of the nation, no doubt can be enter*
tiinedi Not only did they give entire freedom of
port to Trieste and Venice, and (in <»der to satisfy
their Hungarian subjects) to Fiume, Buceari, an*
Porto Re also ; but they have observed that freedom
with the most exemplary fidelity, under dtcum^
stances which would have tempted statesmen of some
other countries to very different conduct. The result
has . rewarded their honest and firm perseverance in
following up a soundly-adopted principle. Venice is
slowly rising once again towards comparative pros-
perity. Trieste has become the most impoitant a^
prosperous port in the Meditef>ranean, and hasi in*
g^eat' measure superseded Genoa and Leghoi^h, in tiie-
suf^y of colonial and foreign goods even to Swit-
zei4aiid and Southern Germany'^an advantage de^
rived from the judicious policy <^ her government'
in allowing a ireedom of transit tbrdugbher states to
tlnoee beyond them. I have no note of the Austrian
commercial marine, but I know that it has of late
years greatly increased. A preferential treaty was
made with the new kingdom of Greece before England
was^a^are of it ; and the Austrian flag is now seen, '
not in the neighbouring seas only, but in the Gulf of
Bothnia, and on the western shores of the Atlantic,
and even at Valparaiso and Chili.
XIV.] INTERNAL AND POR£lGN TRADE. 3fi9
Anothec class i^obstaciesj wfaidi I have nientioiied
as exposing the extenBion of tbe Austrian foreign
trade, is to be found in the situation of the neighbour-
ing states. Hungary exported her wine in former
times largely into Poland, where it w€ks the favourite
beverage of the opulent. The heavy duties imposed-
by the Russian governmentj in concurrence perhaps
with other circumstances*, have nearly annihilated
this branch of profit ; and of 22,000,000 eymers f of
wine, which are supposed to be annually produced in
Hungary, the quantity passing the frontier of the
kingdom hardly exceeds one million, nearly the whole
of which is consumed in Austria. In the most im-
portant of the other states touching on Austria, the
Prussian custom-house confederation prevails, of
which Austria has not become a member, and pro-*
bably never will. She consequently cannot send
thither with advantage the generality of her com-
modities and -manufactures, as she will not recave
thdrs in return.* The. Bohemian nobles, however,
complain much of their being thus deprived of a pro-
fitable export for their agricultuml products into
Saxony and Silesia : and, possessing as.they do from
* Among these is in some degree to be ilicluded the export duty
levied iii Hungary on wines sent beyond the frontier into Austria
or any forrign country. The whole system of duties is one of the
standing grievances of Hungary; but I purposely abstain, at
present, from any disquisition on the differences between that
kingdom and the other dominions of the emperor.
•f* The Austrian eymer is equal to about twelve English gallons
of our old wine measure. ^
VOL. n. 2 B
370 AUSTRIA. [CH.
their vast properties considerable weight in Vienna^
it is probable that they will ere long succeed in in-
ducing some arrangement, for an interclmnge of com-
modities. In tlie mean time> a project has bee^i
formed, and is in course of realization, which, if
completed, will have important results. Austria may
have originally viewed with too much indifference
the Prussian custom«house confederacy, flattering
herself as she did, that by a different arrangement of
her own tariff, it would be at any time in her power
to defeat its object That indifference has yielded of
late, to feelings somewhat akin to alarm. Austria
has perceived the influence which Prussia has been
gradually acquiring over the German states, as the
chief of this general combination ; and in order to
counterbalance or nullify that influence, she has en-
deavoured to establish in the south a counter con-
federation of the " Danube States," which may pro-
bably be soon arranged. It would oomprise Austria,
Bavaria, and Wirtemburg; and although such a
total abolition of mutual duties as exists under the
Prussian system might not be practicable, it would
at any rate afford facilities of commerce highly im-
portant to Austria.
A third class of obstacles to general maritime
trade, of a still more formidable nature, exists in the
physical character of the country — ^the want or im-
perfection of river navigation — and the diflSculty of
communication with the sea, from the regions of the
Danube, which form the . great centre of the national
XIV^] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 371
German resources. The coast of the Adriatic is
Austrian from the mouths of the Po to the southern ex-
tremity of Dalmatia, — ^a line of more than 600 English
miles : yet, in the whole of this extent, two rivers only,
of any importance, are to be found ; and these two,
the Po and the Adige, entering the sea very close tx)
each other in the Gulf of Venice, are useful only to
the Italian states. The entire coast, from the low
land of the Venetian territory to the extreme Dalma-
tian frontier at Ragusa, is formed of a continuity of
chiefly limestone mountains, which rise either at once
from the sea, or leave only between them and it a
narrow alluvial strip of soil, through which indeed
occiisional streams descend, but all of them necessa-
rily short in their course, forming impetuous torrents
in the spring, and channels nearly dry during the rest
of the year. Harbours abound, formed either by in-
dentations in the coast, or by that remarkable series
of islands, large and small, which extend along the
whole line of Dalmatia. They are, too, excellent
already, or capable of being easily rendered so ; but,
from the prioximity of the hills, they are nearly in-
accessible from the country behind them. Even at
Trieste this barrier is so formidable, that the only
exit from that important depdt towards Germimy, is
by a constant zigzag ascent of nearly five English
miles to the summit of heights, which at an elevation
of sixteen hundred feet overhang the city, and which
only lead to a succession of other hills, covering the
entire provinces of Carniola, Carinthia, and Styria.
2b2
372 . . AUSTRIA. : [CH.
Over this wild country are conveyed in wagons of
seven, eighty and sometimes ten tons, often drawn, by
eighteen or twenty liorses and oxen, all the artietej?
destined for Austria,. Switzerland,. and. southern Ger-
many ; and hence it, happens that the expense of oon*^
veying a ton of cotton from Trieste to Vienpa is pre-
cisely the same as . is paid at this time frpm. Calcutta
into Manchester. If we pass from the coast to the
interior, we may there seek in vain for rivers afford-
ing safe outlets to the ocean. We see the Danube
traversing the Austrian possessions for. nearly a
thousand English rniles; but it has thenceforward a
course ; of four hundred miles . J^arther, before it
reaches the Black Sea ; and its banks, during. all thifi
latter course, are either in, the actual posse&ision of
. Russia, or more or less under her control and influ-
ence.* • The Mur, the Drave, the Save, the Kulpa, the
Hungarian Theiss, all; pour their waters anto the
Danube. In a word^ . the : whole drainage of the
southern and central' Austrian states, of Hungary and
Transylvania, as well as of Bosnia,, Servian Bulgaria,
^andWallachia, is towards the east, and flows (chiefly
through the.Danube) into the Euxine. The drainage
of the northern German provinces, except that vyhich
descends to the.Danube or passes by the Dneister
* At thef only navigable mouth of the Danube, and fear- some
diatance upwards, both the banks are absolute^ly Russian. Her
inEueuce is paramount in Moldavia and Wallachia, and nearly so
in Servia. If it cannot be said that this is quite the case yet in
Bulgaria, there seems, at all events, every prospect that it will be
^0 ere long.
i
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 373
equally into the Euxine, runs tovrards the north ; and
it is only on the supposition of a friendly state of rda*
tions with Russia, Prussia, and the German states,
that Austria may communicate with the Baltic by the
Vistula and the Oder, and with the Northern Ocean
by- the Elbe. The Moldau, the principal river of
Bohemia, after traversing Prague, . falls at Melnik
into the Elbe, which soon after . quits the Austrian
territory.
Viewing therefore the basin of the Danube as the
great centre of internal resources, and the coast of
the Adriatic as affording their only sure access to the
sea ; and. desirous at the. same time to utilize, as far as
may be possible,. the means of.communication^ such
as they are, which. are afforded them through other
states, to . the ocean ; — the government ha& been
anxious to encourage the formation of railroads. Nu-
merous surveys, have been taken over those grand
mountain regions, both to the north and to the south ;
but it has been found very difficult to find capital appH-
cahle to objects so expensive; and very few bodies
of private iiidividuals have yet been found to respond
to the call of the minister. In a country exhibiting
such peculiar difficulties of surface, it is indeed a
matter of great doubt, perhaps of great improbabi-
lity, that the vast expense of long lines of railroad,
first in their formation, and next in their practical
details of service, would ever be compensated by ade-
quate benefit either to the proprietor or the public.
It is. exceedingly unlikely that most of those which
374 AUSTRIA, [CH.
have been projected in the Austrian territories will '
ever be attempted, or, if attempted, that they will ever
be completed ; and hence any special notice regard-
ing them may appear at first sight superfluous. I am
inclined however to devote a few pages to the gene-
ral subject of these works as they are projected by
the government, partly as matters on which a
good deal of local interest is felt, and partly as ex-
hibiting the geographical character of the country
itself.
The first line of road completed was from the
Danube, oppo»te Linz, to Budweis on the BoheAaian
Moldau ; thus efiecting a communication between the
Danube and the Elbe, into which the Moldau flows,
and which communication it is intended to render
more perfect by carrying the railroad northward from
Budweis to Prague, where the Moldau may properly
be said to commence being navigable. Another line
in active prepress will descend southward firom the
Danube at Linz by the lakes of Traun and Hallstadt
to Aussee, and thence reaching the Valley of the
Mur, pass on by Leoben and Bruck to Gratz. Of
thid important work the portion from Linz to Gmunden
on the Traun, is ali^eady open. By it will be brought
to the Danube the mina*al and agricultural products
of Styria and Upper Austria, as well as the salt vfi
Ischel and Haliein ; and, should the line be extended
to the south of Gratz, its advantages may be even of
still greater importance. A third line is proposed,
but not yet I believe undertaken, stretching from
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 375
Vienna towards the north-west» which will traverse
Moravia and Bohemia, passing by Krems and Tabor
to Prague. A fourth is already open from Vienna
to Brunn in Moravia, a distance of nearly ninety
English miles. From, this a branch may perhaps be
extended westward towards Prague and the Elbe;
but the primary intention is to continue it on from
Brunn^ in a north-easterly direction, to Bochnia in
Gallicia, thus forming a communication between the
Vistula and the Danube, and between the Polish
provinces and the capital. Much importance, both
political and commercial, is attached to tjhe comple-
tion of this work ; and it is conceived that the annual
expenses would be more than defrayed by the trans*
port of horned cattle alone, of which seventy thousand
are driven on an average from Gallicia to Vienna,
where they now arrive lean and worn after a month's
journey. A fifth line is undertaken and in progress
from Vienna to Raab, the most important corn-market
of Hungary; and by means of which, the importation
into Austria of grain, cattle, wine, and other pro*-
ducts, both of that kingdom and of Servia, will he
greatly facilitated. It is intended that these lin^p
should all have various ramifications ; and pouring,
as they would, if complete, the products of all the
provinces into the Danube, — that great centrt of
Austrian inland trade, — it is considered that they
would be vastly serviceable to the interior commerce
of the empire; the more especially, connected as
that river will shortly be with tlie Rhine, by the
3T6 AUSTRIA. [CH.
works now in .progress in the Bavarian states^^^nd
navigated as it already is into the Bhiek Sea>.I>y
regular Jines of steam-vessels, which go.on to Conr
stantinople and Smyrna.
The greatest object for foreign trade, ^howeveTj
must ever be a communication b^ween the Daanbe
and the Adriatic; and hence the especial soticHiide
of the government has been directed to. the formation
of.a^good railroad to, or towards Trieste, More than
one line has been projected, and surveys made, and
plans furnished : but the '. difficulties have been, on
^Ipse inspection, found so great, thaJk nothing hitherto
has been decided. The four, great southern vsdleys^
that. of the Danube.with Vienna, the Mur. with Gratz,
the Drave with Klagenfurt and Marburg, and the
Save with Lay bach, . are respectively^ divided from
ea^h other by. ridges of nearly parallel mountains,
which, striking off from the None on Julian Alps,
take th^ general direction of west to east, until, having
penetrated more or less into Hungary, they there
dwindle gradually away into low hillocks or table
land* No engineers probably excel those of Austria
in the science of their surveys, or the execution of
.their public works ; and it is hoped that by taking ad-
vantage of lateral valleys, and of existing excavations
and disruptions of the rocks, these various ranges of
hill may be traversed with no insurmountable quantity
of tunnelling and levelling ; so as to gain the south-
ernmost of the great valleys, those of the Drave and
• Save. Once arrived at these, from the one or other
XrV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 377
of tiMon^ the railroad would be conducted farther
south, over comparatrirely level land. It would b6
probably impracticable to make it actually reach
Trieste, on account of the formidable lime&tone
barrier with which that port is enclosed ; but a
vast . object would at all events be gained, if it
wsere brought even to the northern foot of thai bar-
rier ; or, which appears less difficult, if it should be
conducted to the flourishing city of Gorz, and thence
through the. dead level extending from it .to the
shores of the Adriatic, to Monfalcone, not far dis-'
tant jErom. the . ancient Aquileia. The distance from
Trieste to M<Mifalcone does not exceed eighteen
Engli^ miles, and the trade of Carinthia is at pre-
sent carrledon by boats passing between the two ports.
Mcmfalcone is situate in a well-sheltered bight or
inl^t :o£the coast; and, if it be not so already, might
be easily improved into a good harbour for the small
craft in whicK the merchandize from Trieste wonM be
conveyed ; and the merchants of Trieste who are timv
looking with so much anxiety for an improved :c6m^
munication with Vienna, would probably find in such
a route their object answered. Gorz is already a
place of some commercial importance, and would in
such case become considerably more so ; connected
as. it wo.uld be, not only with the Danube and thcf
* Although the valley of the Save is the southerumoBt, yet thati
of the Drave, running up more deeply, and throwing out more
lateral vales, it may probahly be found easier to carry a level to
the Adriatic from the latter than the former.
378. AUSTRIA. [CH,
sea, but idso by two lateral lines of road^ the one
conununicating over the great alluvial level with the
line of intended rail from Venice to Milan, and the
other passing eastward through the valley of the
Save» by Laybach into Hungary.
The natural, the obvious, the oomparatively easy^
mode of reaching the southern valleys from Vienna,
would be by traversing the Hungarian territory so as
to pass beyond or around the extremities of the dif*
ferent ranges of hill, by a line proceeding generally
in a southern direction, from whence branches might
be carried up each or all of those vallies : but a sin-
gular obstacle here occurs in the national polky of
the Hungarian diet< That body entertains a strong
jealousy of Trieste as the great and flourishing depot
of Austrian commerce^ and would endeavour, by what
appears a short-sighted and erroneous legislation^ to
conflne, as far as possible, the trade of Hungary to
its own ports , of Fiume, Buccari, and Porto Re. It
forgets that foreign trade will flow to those ports,
which are already established as large and general
markets ; where facilities exist for rapid and extensile
operations ; and whence, by communications with
the interior, even though not in themselves good, com*
modities are conveyed with regularity and dispatch.
Hence it is, that having just before their last separa^
tion passed a law to authorize the formation, by char-
tered companies under the superintendence of a
National Committee, of various canals and railroads
in Hungary, the diet have strictly defined the va-
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 379
rious lines to be taken, in such manner that seve«
ral may reach Fiume and the Hungarian coast,
but none extend towards Trieste or the Austrian bor-
der of the Adriatic* Having obtained from the
equity of the crov^n an absolute equality of freedom
for their own ports, vrith that enjoyed by Trieste,
they would flatter themselves that three or four lines
of raih'oad abutting thereat, (if indeed practicable,
which I do not conceive they will be, since all these
ports are flanked by lofty barriers of mountain)
united to a prohibitory system as far as they can so
render it, in regard to Trieste, will suffice to bring to
Fiume a great portion of the trade of the latter port*
They have not yet sufficiently reflected, that something
more is wanting to the prosperity of commerce, than
firanchises and roads — ^that it can never be found in a
country where feudal manners render trade an igno-
ble and degrading pursuit — ^where feudal laws make
it impossible to enforce a commercial contract-^
where, finally, the necessities of the small but aristo-
. * A powerful party in the Diet (and I believe that that most
enlightened and patriotic statesman. Count Szechenyi, was one of
them) urged the expediency of permitting roads and canals to
be made, under the supervision and permission of the Palatine and
a committee, in am/ and every direction, which companies might
incline ta undertake. This amendment was not carried. Still, in
tracing the authorised lines^ it may be hoped that, should they ever
be carried into effect, one or two of them may be rendered useful
in connecting Vienna with the southern Austrian provinces, and
Hungary with both. It is obvious that Hungary would gain im-
mensely by such connexion.
880 AUSTHIA. [CH.
cratic proprietor reduce him on tlie one hand to be-
come the petty dealer and chapman of the produce, of
bis farm, while on the other his privileged licence
prevents all, save Jews and pedlars, from venturing to
deal with him.
The Steam Navigation of the Danube is now
nearly complete. The company established at Vi-
enna has four relays of steam-boats : the first, con-
veying passengers and goods from Presburg to Pesth,
a distance of about a hundred and twenty English
miles : the second from Pesth to Moldova, where the
river is obstructed with rocky rapids which extend
for nearly eighty English miles as far as . Gladova.
This part of the journey is still performed by land ;
and on re-embarkation below the rapids at Gladova, a
third relay proceeds for about four hundred and fifty
English miles to Galacz, where the fourth com-
mences, and which, descending to the mouth of the
Danube, about ninety English miles below Galacz,
crosses thence the Black Sea to Constantinople.
Prom that place there are steamers in various direc-
tions, Trebisonde, Odessa, Egypt, &c. under i^arious
flags; and some belonging to the Austrian Danube
cwnpany, which ply to Smyrna, from which port
there is, or at least was, a regular steam communica-
tion twice a week to Athens. From Vienna to
Presburg, the extreme shallowness of the river and
its moving sands had hitherto, when we were in
Hungary, prevented the establishment of steamers:
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. ' 381
but the company were then building iron vesselsi on
the principle occasionally adopted in America, to
carry the machinery on deck, and not to draw more
than eighteen inches water, which, it was.hoped^
would complete this part of the line ; and thus affoi*d
the means of reaching Constantinople from Vienna
by steam in ten days, without any interruption save
the land journey from Moldova to Cladova. Having
ascended the river from the Black Sea, for the last
eight hundred miles of its course, and having seen it in
most'^f its principal points higher up, I have, had the
opportunity of observing the principal features of ^his
very interesting navigation : but my own impression
is, that by political rather than by commercial results
must its chief importance be estimated. The nature
of the river will probably ever prevent its being a
medium of enlarged commercial communication. Al«
though hurrying rapidly along in some few parts
where its course is impeded or contracted by rock,
as for instance round the points of Presburg, Gran,
and Buda» and more especially between Moldava and
Cladova, its general character is that of a broad
sluggish shallow muddy stream. It is beset in. all
its course below Vienna by multitudes of moving
sands, and among these it drags its slow lepgth
along between banks so little elevated, that a rise pf
a very few feet suffices to create a mighty morass
for hundreds of miles around. The sands, shifting .i||i
various directions, accumulate in diverse parts, thus
rendering the navigation at all times dubious and
382 AUSTRIA. [CH.
diflSicult; and even the steamers, which draw but
four and a half feet of water, are never safe from these
obstructions. The one in which we asc^ided from
Galacz stuck fast on one of these banks, although
we had a local (Servian) pilot on board ; and it wa^
only by raising the steam to its greatest pressure, of
course with some little risk to the boiler, that we
got at length relieved. In the preceding year, one
had remained on a bank near Belgrade for four days,
until liberated at last by the aid of another steamer
which came down from Pesth. Fortunately the
impediments being merely sand, delay is in most
cases the only evil of resting on them. Such a
river must of necessity be unnavigable for larger
craft than mere barges ; but besides, the countries on
its banks below Hungary are, in their present state,
of very little importance either as to consumption or
supply. Probably, by means of the steamers» some
of those droves of Servian cattle and swine which
cross the river near Belgrade, and thence are driven
by land to Vienna, may be spared a part of their long
and weary journey by being towed up in rafts : some
of the wool and tobacco of Lower Hungary may in
the same way be conveyed up to Pesth or Raab ; and,
if corn-mills are established on the river opposite to
those cities, the flour there ground may probably be
sometimes carried down to the mouth of the river,
there to be embarked for Constantinople.^ These par-
* The establishment of corn-mills on the Danube, near Pesth,
is among the patriotic plans of Count Szechenyi, for the improve-
XIV.] INTERNAL AND FOREIGN TRADE. 383
tisd benefits may accrue ; but, taken on a broad scale, a
long period must elapse before, if ever, the steam on
the Danube can impart to Austria or Hungary any im-
portant commercial advantage. Its political results,
however, will be of the highest value. Through its
channel the tide of civilisation wiU be gradually
poured on the distant regions of Wallachia, Servia,
and Bulgaria. It will introduce Hungary into the
bosCMn of Europe. It will bring her hitherto se-
cluded population into social intercourse with tra-
vellers from distant lands. It will be the means
of dispelling the clouds of prejudice, ignorance, and
error; and, auspicious alike to the vassal and his
lord, it will improve the condition of man in every
stage of society.
meut of hi« country. The Turks have very defective facilities of
griDding corn ; and if flour can be so ground and exported, as to
Compete in the market of Constantinople with that of Odessa, it
may become a considerable national object. Great improven^iit^
however, must first take place, both in Hungarian agriculture, apd
in the communiqations from the interior to the river.
384 [ott.
CHAPTER XV.
iNTERNAii Policy. — ^Austria considered' with jeference to her
Internal Gondition-*-Progre88 of the Crown in efitablisrhingthe
Monarchical Principle — Its Policy in sustaining that Prindpki,
and rendering it Popular — Opposite Conduct of Austria and
France, in the reduction of Feudality — Points of Difficulty with
which the Government has to contend — Necessity of Vigilance
in the correction of Ahuses while the Press is controlled —
Point of Weakness in the Body of the Empire-^-Diverflities of
Nationality-^Bohemia, Moravia, and Gallicia— Their PbMcal
Condition — Hungary : its Constitution and Social State-r-The
Lombard©- Venetian KingdomT— The Character of its Goyeni'
ment — Its Condition and Prospects.
In the preceding chapters an attempt has been made
to exhibit the genius of the Austrian government
and institutions, together with its eflfect on the cha-
racter and well-being of the people in those parts of
the empire — the German provinces — where alone that
genius can be fully traced. A few remarks, by way
of a summary, may now be made on the general sub-
jCQt.
History exhibits the crown engaged for centuries
in a steady but generally peaceful conflict with that
feudal nobility, which at some period or other has
formed a co-ordinate, and frequently a paramount
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 385
power, in every one of its provinces. It has enlisted
in its service the circumstances of foreign war» and of
popular discontent. It has gained powerful chief-
tains to its views by the temptation of honours and
commands; or it has so encumbered their feudal
dignities with expensive though honourable charge,
as frequently to compel their voluntary surrender.
In proportion as it has gained the ascendency^ so has
aristocratical power declined, and the monarchical
principle been established on its ruins ; but this as-
cendency could neither be acquired, nor can it be
sustained, by the force of the crown alone. It could
not be effected by mere military means (had the
sovereign even been inclined to resort to them), in a
country where the army must be officered by the
scions of the privileged nobles, and the ranks re-
cruited from among their vassals. Other forces were
required. The towns, the small proprietors, the
middling classes, were necessarily raised up as the
allies of the crown; and that absolute authority
which it established by their means, could only be
afterwards supported on the willing obedience of the
general population.
Hence we see the assiduous care with which the
crown, once become predominant, labours to mould
the public mind, by the union of education, affections,
and interests, into one common form of ready filial
subjection to absolute but paternal sway. We see
how successfully it has imprinted on the people those
sentiments of attachment, which have been proof
VOL. II. 2 c
386 AUSTRIA. [CH.
against all the disturbances of revolutionary Europe,
and which have caused those of its German posses^-
sioQSy which were temporarily severed by the events
of war, to hail with joy their restoration to the Aus-
trian sceptre. The tranquil confiding frame of
mind thus created, it is the policy of the government
by every means to perpetuate. It despotically crushes
every species of political or religious controversy.
It rigidly supervises the organs and instruments of
education. It discourages on the one hsoid the ge^
neral difiusion of foreign literature or foreign pro-
ducts ; while, on the other, the great principle of
preventing all dissatisfaction induces it to allow, for
private use, whatsoever of either be desired for
mental or corporeal enjoyment. It jealously refuses
to the aristocracy (whensoever it can safely do so)
that permission to acquire new ideas by travel in
foreign lands, which it grants freely to the commer-
cial classes; and, in ecclesiastical matters, while it
allows universal toleration, it maintains a control
alike absolute and undivided, over the Roman Ca-
tholic hierarchy, the Protestant synod, and the He-
brew synagogue. Its police, rigid in all matters of
political suspicion, presses, where it does press,
chiefly on the smaller nobles, on foreign idlers, and
on such of the Italian and Hungarian subjects as
may, without apparent motive of business, migrate
to the German provinces : by the generality of the
people, it is unseen and unfelt, save as the instru-
ment of that public order to which they are them*
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 387
selves SO much attached. The crhninal code is
mild ; its procedure slow ; and the general character
of its operation rather corrective than penal. Edu-
cation is extended to every class ; but such education
only as may be subservient to the practical purposes
of life; and so regulated is the religious portion of
that education, as to excite the better feelings, but not
to stimulate the reason. The government labours
with a father's care, to provide for the worldly pros-
perity and comfort of its children; while, with
somewhat of a father's jealous solicitude, it ever in-
terferes to supervise their conduct and regulate their
concerns. The children may in some few cases utter
a transient complaint, that so much of parental anx-
iety is superfluous and troublesome; while in others,
far more numerous, they may long on the conti-ary
to flee to its protection, from the harshness of feudal
superiority. On the whole, an easy confiding spirit
is the general characteristic of the rulers and the
ruled ; and it may be not untruly said of the inhabi-
tants of the German provinces of Austria, wherever
the crown is dominant, that, allowing for local and.
natural evils such as no government can counteract,
they are, beyond all the nations of Europe, an or-
derly, contented, and enjoying people.
Let us here pause for an instant, to contrast the
conduct of t^vo great rival nations in the reduction of
feudality. In France, as in Austria, the crown was
2c2
388 AUSTRIA. [CH.
for a long period struggling for the ascendency over
its powerful vassals ; and the chief ultimate instru-
ment of its success was the centralisation and luxury
and corruption of the metropolis. .The court was
surrounded with splendour and enjoyment ; and the
nobles, once attracted thither, lost for ever their per^
sonal independence. But the great error of the court
consisted, in still flattering and pampering those whom
it had effectively subdued. Privilege continued
where power had ceased. Nobility remained exempt
from taxation. It was still the qualification, without
which no office might be held in the army or the
state : and an impassable line was drawn between
the noble and the plebeian classes, by the barbarous
maxim of law that commerce degraded nobility, and
consequently annulled its prerogatives. The people
thus gained nothing by what the nobles lost* They
remained the sole payers of direct taxation, — ^they
were excluded from honours, and insulted by privi-
lege, — and no surprise can exist, that when necessity
at length called in the Tiers Etat to aid in alleviat-
ing the distresses of the state, the people burst forth
in wild and bloody revolution. How different has
been the conduct of Austria. As she has subdued
the nobles, she has imposed on them an absolute
equality of taxation with that borne by their inferiors;
she has opened to all alike her civil, her military,
and her ecclesiastical establishments ; and as she has
prevailed over the feudal administrations and juris-?
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 389
dictions, she has made the people feel the superior
equity and protection of those, which she has substi-
tuted in their stead. In the Imperial tribunals she
renders equal law to all. Where the feudal courts
still exist, her forcible interference in the person of
the ci-own fiscals, renders them formally null, or
substantially just ; and leads the manorial " subjects"
to look habitually to the crown, as their ultimate and
best protector. While depriving the nobles of feudal
poTi'er, she does not allure them to dissipate their
revenues in the metropolis, by the attractions of a
brilliant court ; for hers is of the simplest character :
but, on the contrary, she seeks to render them useful
resident landlords, by vesting the greater part of the
local administrations in those provincial councils,
whereof they are probably the members. Commerce
and manufactures she holds up as honourable pur-
suits, since she grants patents of nobility to those
who are most largely engaged in them ; and among
the more recently created barons are many of the
principal merchants and bankers of Vienna. The
result of all this the world has seen. More than
once has the empire been invaded, and its capital
captured, by the ai-mies of revolution ; a third of its
provinces for a time forcibly detached ; its govern-
ment repeatedly and desperately bankrupt ; its popu-
lation crushed with public and private misery; its
nobles powerless to enforce any feudal pritilege:
yet no revolution has occurred in Austria. Her in-
stitutions have remained entire, — ^for peasants, citi-
390 AUSTRIA. [CH.
zens, and nobles rallied alike around that throne,
which, but for this universal attachment, had not a
rush to support it.
Yet Austria has her points of difficulty. It is with
her a primary necessity of the monarchy, to per-
petuate that voluntary public attachment on which
its strength reposes; and this is not in all re^
spects and under all circumstances an easy task.
If we look to the state of the finances we find it in-
deed so far sound, as that the debt is not consid^-^
able, the currency unimpeachable^ the sources of the
national wealth in progress oi extensive development,
and the produce of the existing taxes in course of
gradual augmentation. Still, while the expenditure
exceeds the income (and that such is yet the case is
evinced by the contract for a further loan which has
been made even in the present year) there must be
apprehension of increased taxation — a proceeding
always of some hazard to popularity, especially in a
country where no publicity is rendered of the national
accounts. Although the aggregate of taxation is very
small, yet the Verzehrung-steuer, and the monopoly of
salt, are even now much complained of by the poorer
classes; and any increase of imposts, although it would
lead to no actual resistance, would, jK?ro tantoy diminish
the security of the government by reducing its popula-
rity. Again : if we investigate the details of the fiscal
and administrative departments, we shall find in them,
it may be feared, considerable an^ount of mismanage-
XV-3 INTERNAL POLICY. 391
ment^ abu86» and corruption. The mmisters Metter-
nich and Kollowrat are fully aware of their existenee,
and abundantly anxious for their removal ; but all
who have comprehended the structure of the civil ser-
vice, as I have endeavoured to explain it in a former
chapter, will perceive that, with an organization so
peculiar, no large measure of official reform can be
attempted without great embarrassment, and pro-
bably even danger to the state. Persons obstinately
attached to an antique system, or profiting habitually
by the products of long-established abuse, cannot be
safely displaced from employments to which they have
risen by the usual routine of the service. They can^
not, with safety, be sent forth to disseminate dissatis-
faction and distrust among the thousands and tens of
thousands of families, where attachment to the go-'
vemment is blended with the expectation, almost as a
matter of right, that their children shall inherit the
provision it affords. It is in this respect that the
cohesive principle itself, which blends the public with
the government, is a collateral source of diffijculty ;
since in many points it prevents the adoption of
changes, whereby the public feeling would be jarred
through the shock that would be felt in the public
service ; and hence it is only by slow and cautious
degrees, that the Austrian ministry can effect those
improvements which are essentially important to
the welfare of the state. Finally, if we turn
to the administration of correctional law, it may
392 AUSTRIA. [CH.
be conceived that something of oppression may l^e
occasionally the result of the discretional and irre-
sponsible power, more or less vested either directly
or through the instrumentality of the police, in
feudal lords, provincial officers of government, head^
of families, and even domestic superiors. Where
public complaint through the press cannot be made,
and where public discussion in matters of church
or state is prohibited, a sense of some individual
injustice may at any time form the nucleus of ex-
tended discontent, which may bum with a smoul-
dering fire, unmarked by the government, until it
burst forth at length in open conflagration, I have
no reason to suspect, that anything of this kind now
exists in the German provinces of 'Austria. I believe
that the protecting vigilance of the administration on
the one hand, and the general gentleness of the natioiial
character on the other, would mainly prevent, except
sometimes in cases of subordinate officers, and these
principally on feudal estates, any real oppression from
the powers I have cited. I would hope, too, that
official uialversation and corruption are not so gene-
ral as has been sometimes imagined. I mention these
rather as evils and dangers to which all absolute go-
vernments must be more or less exposed. In the
present condition of the Austrian people in tl^ Ger-
man provinces, orderly and happy, gently and pater-
nally governed, and thriving in worldly prosperity, I
am of opinion that a free press would be tQ Ihem a
XV.] INTERNAL I^OLICY. 393
most disastrous boon ; but, in proportion as the safety-
valve of the state machine is kept compressed, so
must the engineers be vigilant and active : they must
look to the mechanism in all its details^ and correct
whatsoever they find amiss. By a wise and steady
regulation of the popular sentiment, they must allow
to it such elastic force as is requisite to the due work-
ing of the engine, while they anxiously anticipate
and prevent every discontent which might impart to
it an excess of expansion or a turbulence of impulse,
that would find no exit but in a general disruption.
Austria has also her points of w^aknessy although
not to the extent which has been occasionally sup-
posed. It is no unfrequent observation, that the vari-
ous members of the empire hang loosely together ;
and that, differing as they do in language, in habits,
and somewhat in interests, a slight shock would suf-
fice to produce a great convulsion. In such obser-
vations, as in most of those made on the subject of
Austria, there appears to be a mixture of some truth
with much error ; and as the subject is one of much
interest, let us briefly consider the political condition
of the different principal members whereof the empire
is composed.
Before speaking of Hungary and Italy, which are
usually held to be the most vulnerable points, we may
ascribe whatever there may be of insecurity in the
German provinces, to the partial continuance of the
feudal institutions, and to the remnants of distinct
394 AUSTRIA, JCil.
nationality. In Bohemia^ Moravia, Sileaia, and Galr
Ucia, containing tog^her a population of nearly
eleven millions of persons, these still more or le3$
prevail ; and so cautious, although systematic^ ar#
the invasions of the crown, that much time must yet
elapse before they are abolished. Popular discontents
may in the interim arise; vassals may be excited
against their lords ; and the crown may not be so suc-
cessful in appeasing such disorders, and even in turn-
ing them to the welfare of the country, as was the
case with the great insurrectionary movements of
1773. Neither must the crown itself indulge, without
extreme circumspection, its propensities towards ge-
neral consolidation. In Bohemia^the resident gentry
and middling classes still cling with fondness to the
language and the monuments of those periods, when
Prague viras the capital of a powerful sovereign*
Their national feelings cannot be invaded with im-^
punity ; and, as elsewhere mentioned, when they were
not long since arrayed against the cabinet of Vienna,
which wished to extinguish the Bohemian tongue, they
gained so complete a moral victory, as to induce the
crown not only to abandon the intention, but to con-
sent to the establishment of academies and iiustitutions
for the encouragement of Bohemian literature. Little
however is to be apprehended in regard to Bohemia.
The crown has had the sagacity to concede, in points
of naticmal feeling, where concession was requisite to
popular satisfaction : its remedial invasions on feu-
dality have been eminently successful ; and, from the
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY, 396
very magnitude of the landed estates, and the resi-
dence of their lords upon them in princely splendour
for a certain portion of the year, a state of things is
produced more favourable to the " subject," than
where feudal power is divided among smaller or
needier proprietors. No country in Europe has pro-
bably evinced a more decided improvement in the
condition of the people during the last twenty years,
than that great province. Moravia also is advancing
gradually and steadily in prosperity and wealth : but
in Gallicia remains much of popular distress, and
much of a sterner feudal domination. Gallicia, the
last of the Austrian acquisitions, is essentially Polish ;
and is still oppressed with much of the iron despotism
of Polish feudality. In it, more than in any other
part of the empire, except Hungary, the nobles are
everything and the people nothing. During the mili-
tary movements by which a large body of the Polish
chieftains sought to re-establish their ancient kingdom,
their brethren in Gallicia were solely restrained from
joining th^n by the strong arm of power. They made
immense pecuniary sacrifices, in aid of what they
considered a national cause ; they encumbered them-
selves and th^ii* properties to the uttermost ; and thus,
reduced to poverty themselves, they have rendered
more miserable the state of their wretched dependants*
Two evils may therefore threaten public tranquillity
in Gallicia ; neither of which, however, are very -pro^
bable. The peasants may be driven by misery to rise
against their lords ; or those lords themselves may
396 AUSTRIA. [CH.
join in attempts for Polish independence. It is
to be especially noticed, that by no other political
cause would they in all probability be seduced from
tranquillity. They view France with aversion, and
Russia with detestation ; and are no otherwise dissa-
tisfied with the Austrian rule, than as they retain
those old recollections of national independence,
which may be expected gradually to decrease in force
provided the Polish provinces remain under their pre-
sent domination.
Turning next to Hungary^ we find an exceedingly
peculiar political regime. The entire surface of the
soil is possessed by the nobles, for no one not noble
may hold land in Hungary. These nobles, assembled
in county meeting, nominate to all offices in the
county, judicial, fiscal, and administrative, without
any interference of the crown. They are themselves
exempt from taxation, and by their own officers they
levy the direct revenue from the class of peasants,
and pay it over to the government. The diet, by
which all direct imposts are decreed, is composed of
the sovereign and of two chambers. The higher of
these consists of titled and official magnates ; the
lower, of deputies from the nobles of the counties, and
bomsk the chartered communities termed Royal Free
Cities : but in this lower house, the deputies of the
nobles alone may vote ; those of the cities being only
permitted to attend and to speak. The class of pea-
sants, who compose the vast bulk of the community^
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 397
have DO political rights, and are held under rigo-
rously feudal subjection.* The crown has its vice-
regal establishment at Buda, and its Hungarian chan-
cellor at Vienna ; and it appoints judges in the
supreme courts, and some few civil officers : but it
can nominate, for any of these employs, only Hun*
gariaa subjects. The chartered cities have close cor-
porations, and have their own municipal administra-
tions similar to those of the German cities already
described.f Such was the ancient constitution of
Hungary, and such it remsdns to this day. A glance
at its composition will show how exceedingly difficult
must be the working of its administration by the
cabinet of Vienna. The maxims of government in
the two countries are utterly at variance. The mo-
narchical principle is dominant in Austria — ^the aris*
tocratical is absolute in Hungary. Under such cir-
cumstances, it is hardly to be supposed that either
party should render justice to the views and inten-
tions and feelings of the other. The government of
* Some persons maintain that the feudal system does not pro-
perly exist in Hungary, as the theoretical lordship of the aoil is
only in the sovoreign conditionally; and as, on its reverting to
him, for want of heirs, he is hy the constitution bound to re-grant
it forthwith to some other noble. The question is not worth dis-
cussion in this place, as it has no practical bearing. I use the
term feudal as applied to Hungary, since the constitutional
scheme of society, — the relation between the sovereign and the
noble, and between the noble and the peasant, — is, except as slightly
modified by time, precisely analogous to that which prevailed, under
what is commonly termed the feudal system, in the generality of
European countries.
f Vol. i. chap. iii.
398 AUSTRIA. [CH.
Vienna, anxious for the happiness of all the subjects
ci the crown, — ^but guided in its notion of happi-
ness by the principles of its own paternal rule, —
seeks to extend to Hungary those institutions of
civil and criminal law, public education and general
government, which have been so productive, in the
German provinces, of contentment, prosperity, and
order: and it perceives nothing but the spirit of
factious and turbulent obstinacy, in those who, on
constitutional principles, oppose its views. The ruling
party in Hungary, dreading above eveiy evil the re-
duction of their constitutional rights, view with an
unwearying suspicion every movement of the Aus-
trian cabinet ; and they too often reject or defeat prb-
positions of internal alteration, which would be avcJw-
edly beneficial to the country, because, being made
by the crown, they dread that, under the outward
garb of public good, some insidious design is con-
cealed, to inveigle them vrithin the sphere of the ge-
neral absolutism. The mass of people partake the
sentiments of their superiors. The tranquil and
enjoying Austrian, attached to the institutions that
surround him, regards the Magyar* as little better
than a rude and lawless barbarian ; and the Magyar
returns the compliment, by contemning the Austrian
as a being unworthy of civil rights, and the willing
instrument of absolute power.
The crown has for the last three centuries made
repeated, indeed almost continual attempts to gain
ground upon the nobles ; but the nobles, dreading
* The proper designation of the Hungarians.
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 399
the consecfuetices of the slightest conceesion, have
maintained their position to the uttermost. Paying
no direct taxation themselves, they allow not a florin
more of revenue to be extracted from the peasants,
than that conceded in the reign of Maria Theresa ;
they permit no alteration of force in their military
contingent, dither in war or in peace; and they
suffer their lands to remain half desolate, and their
vassals half barbarous, lest any alteration in their
social fabric may open a crevice for that royal inter-
ference, which it is their main object to exclude.
The crown, on the other hand, has for three centuries
laboured by every means to amend or to subvert this
antique constitution. Sometimes it has employed
force, and sometimes persuasion; but ever alike
without success ; and tor the last few years it would
seem to have given up what it has experienced to be a
hopeless struggle. It seeks now some compensation
for the want of Hungarian revenue, by imposing duties
of export and import on goods passing between Hun*
gary and Austria ; and it exerts what influence it can
in the municipalities and the Upper House of Diet, as
some very slight attempt at counterpoise to the pre-*
dominance of the Lower Chamber.
From a merely superficial view of this state of
things, an opinion has been sometimes loosely ha*
zarded, that Hungary would not much longer remain
in voluntary submission to the Austrian sceptre.
My own persuasion, formed on a careful investiga-
tion of the subject, and a personal intimacy with
men of every order in the country, is very dif-
400 AUSTRIA. [CH.
ferent The nobles, the only '' Uheri hmmnes,'' will
indeed talk loudly, both in the diet and out (^ it,
against Austrian ministers and Austrian absolutism ;
and will refer to acts of unconstitutionality in former
years, which, however possibly capable of some pal-
liation, cannot be substantially denied. If the crown
should ever again be tempted to infringe their con-
stitutional rights, they will oppose a decided but
passive resistance — a resistance however rendered so
effectual by the peculiar mechanism of thdr insti-
tutions, that it will, as it has ever done before,
compel the crown to retrace its unlawful steps.
This they will do ; but they will not rise in rebellion,
or attempt to throw off their allegiance. A feudal*
and privileged aristocracy is little likely to cl^rish
the Western doctrines of liberalism and danoeraey ;
and that of Hungary is too sagacious to think of
seeking for themselves a distinct independence. Of
the numerous, body termed Hungarian nobles, this ks
not the place to enter into a description ; but among
those who may be designated as their chiefs^ are men
as enlightened in their judgment as they are lofiy in
their sentiments. Who shall censure such men, de-
riving their blood and their lands through periods
when Hungary was among the most powerful and
brilliant states of Europe, for boldly asserting those
* I confine these and the following obsenrations to the cldefs
among the liberal nobles, who have now the ascendancy over the
swarm of inferior nobles. The tranquillity of Hungary consider-
ably depends on their retention of that ascendancy, and in their
prudence in the exercise of it.
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 401
rights which they have derived from so long a train
of glorious ancestors? However unsuited be their
ariitique constitution to the present condition of Eu-
rope, however calculated even to retard the civilisa-
tion and physical prosperity of the kingdom^ still
who shall blame their resistance to past invasione^
which have aimed at destroying that distinct nation-^
ality which has been theirs for a thousand years, — at
ftising Hungary, like Bohemia, into the mass of
Austrian provinces, — and at laying its ancient nobi-
lity prostrate at the foot of the crown ? Still these
high-minded men know the perils of their position.
They are aware of the hostile feeling with which
they are viewed by the towns, and of the ill- con-
cealed hatred borne to them by a semi-barbarous
peasantry. Whatsoever be the attitude they assume
towards the crown, they are certain that its interests
and policy will secure them from the wild havoc of
popular ii^urrection ; but were the connexion with
Austria dissolved, — were Hungary in her present
state left to the unaided care of her nobles, — short
would be the period ere both their castles and their
persons would be swept away by the horrors of a
ferodous servile revolution.
Different is the state of the Italian provinces. In
them no feudal distinctions exist; no jealousies are
excited by superiority of privilege. The population
is united — ^which is neither the case in Hungary nor
the German provinces — by a community of lan-
VOL. II. 2 D
402 AU5TBU. [CH.
guage» habits, and feelings ; and, perhaps it may be
added, in an instinctive dislike, not specifically to
Austrian, but to German domination. As regards
the luass of that population however, this dislike will
produce no action, so long as they feel their condi*
tion prosperous, and the administration of the govern-^
ment not oppres^^ve. In Italy, as in the German
provinces, it appears to be the principal object of the
government to conciliate the middling and lower
classes, while it seeks to depress, where it cannot
gain over, the larger proprietors ; who, although en-
dowed with no legal pre-eminence, still wield the
usual influence of property, and are naturally hostile
to Transalpine rule. It has been the policy of Austriaj
to introduce, as far as in her lay, a uniformity, not of
institutions only, but of language also, in the sieveral
portions of her dominions ; but her success in doing;
SQ has been far from perfect. The feelings of a
people are generally more interwoven with the fami"
liar sounds and the small every-day habits which
tliey have derived from their parents, than wit^h
thos^ grevA political maxims on which their goyern-
Qient may be based. It was the decree of Joseph.
11.^ ordaining that the German language alone
should be taught and used in Hungary, that roused
the spirit of national resistance ; and this has gone
on increasing in force, until at length, subvert-
ing alike both the German and th^ Latin, it has
compelled the crown to ratify a law, whereby the
still meagre and unformed Asi^ic dialect, termed
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 403
the Magyar or proper Hungarian, is made the lan-
guage of the schools, the diet, and the courts. In
Italy also, the government is now engaged in a
somewhat similar attempt. It is striving to intro-
duce the German language into the primary schools,
evidently aiming at its establishment as the official,
and even, if possible, the vernacular tongue : but
slow and cautious must be its proceedings in this
respect, or they will be subversive of its own de-
signs, and cause a re-action fearful as that of Hun-
gary.
In matters of public administration in Italy, the
crown seeks to frame its course on the Austrian
principle; ever to interfere and to regulate, while
it wishes to be substantially indulgent: but the
Italian mind is not moulded, like the Austrian mind,
into filial submission ; and hence the paternal prin-
ciple is exhibited here with less of its indulgence,
and more of its authority. In point of fiscal and of
military pressure, however, it is felt to be very far
more lenient than was the domination of the French ;
and all that may tend to the advancement of agricul-
ture, commerce, or general well-being, is sedulously
promoted. Let a man traverse those lovely regions,
and he will find them cultivated and blooming Kke
a garden. He will see a soil absolutely oppressed
with the abundance of its produce, — excellent roads,
— ^handsome towns, — an apparently well-fed, well-
clothed people, and every indication of public and
individual prosperity. The expenditure of the go-
2d2
404 AUSTRIA* [CH»
verament in public works is larger in the Italian
states than in any of the other provinces. The sf&-
tern of representation is somewhat more real than in
any other part of the empire, save as regards the
nobles of Hungary ; and, upon the whole, I believe
the inhabitants of the smaller towns and the villages,
and the rural cultivators generally, to be well enough
satisfied with the existing rule. It may be different
in the larger cities, and especially in Milan, although
in them also the discontents are ssdd to be diminish-
ing ; and the recent amnesty for political offenders
will add much to the popularity of the sovereign :
but, until recently at least, it cannot be denied that
the police in these cities has been extremely rigid,
and in many points vexatiously oppressive. It has
become so, from the alleged necessity of watching
and repressing that system of base and profligate
intrigue, which is even now at work from the side of
France; and of putting down those numerous and
powerful malcontents who would at an earlier period
have favoured an alliance with that country, and who
are still perhaps not altogether devoid of hope, that a
general union may be effected of all Italy into one
independent state. The police is armed with equal
power in the German as in the Italian provinces ; but
in the former its movements are indulgent and un-
suspecting,* for it acts on an attached and contented
population. In Italy, in the great towns at any rate,
the consciousness or suspicion of hostility has ren-»
dered it severe, and this severity may probably have
XV.] INTERNAL POLICY. 405
tended much to perpetuate those animosities of feel*
ing, which it was designed to control and suppress.
There is little doubt however, that its vigilance and
energy in the cities, united with the general content
which prevails out of them, and the powerful military
means always arrayed along the frontier towards
France, will suflGice to secure the internal peace, so
long, at least, as there is no important pressure from
without, and while the government does not indulge
its besetting sin of Germanization.
The malcontents, or at least those who have l}een
malcontents, are of two classes. The one of these
consists of mere democratic revolutionists, seeking
their own immediate advantage in the general confu-
sion, — persons mainly devoid of public or private
morality, and bankrupts alike in property and repu-
tation. Of the other class, I would speak in very
different terms, and with feelings of sincere respect.
Many of them I have known, and greatly esteemed ;
some as exiles in foreign lands, — men of large pro-
perty, high acquirements, amiable and honourable in
their views and conduct, and only too enthusiastic
for the age and circumstances in which th^ lived.
There are few right-minded persons who will refuse
their sympathy with the feelings of these patriotic
but misguided men : few who grieve not to reflect
that the idea of an Italian kingdom, which should
comprise the several states of that
Garden of the world, the home
Of aU art yields and nature can decree,
406 AUSTRIA. [CH.
is a creation of the fancy only. This is a subject on
which the practical statesman and the real friend of
Italy must submit his private wish to the lessons
of observation and experience. Italy has no common
centre of population, interests, or feelings — ^no ele-
ment of political combination — ^and, what is perhaps
still more important, no adequate fund of public or
private morality to sustain her independence, even if
she could for a moment acquire it. Incongruous
and ill-asserted as may appear the union between
Lombardy and Austria, that between Lombardy
and Naples would be scarcely less so. During
the lapse of a thousand years, Italy has been
the arena of sanguinary conflict or of perfidious in-
trigue, between two mighty foreign powers, to one or
othoi* of which the paramount influence over her
smaller states, and the actual possession of a portion
of her northern provinces, have usually belonged. In
the existing state of the world, subjection to Trans-
alpine influence or rule must be still her fate : and,
if so, there can be little doubt that the practical poli-
tician as well as the. genuine philanthropist-r-all, in-
deed, who look to the repose of Europe, or to the
real interests and prosperity of the Italian people,
will concur in the endeavour to insure the paramount
preferential control over Italy, to Austria rather than
to France,
XVI. ] 407
CHAPTER XVI.
Foreign Policy. — Austria considered with reference to her
Foreign Relations; she aims essentially at Peace — Austrian
Policy towards Italy — Conflicts with France for Ascendancy
in the smaller States — Military Occupation of Countries
threatened with Popular Revolution — ^Austrian Policy towards
Germany — Formation and present State of the Grermanic
Confederation — Difficulties experienced hy the Congress of
Vienna — Its Views for a different Organization of Grermany —
The Preservation of the Kingdom of Saxony hy its sudden
Dissolution — Rivalship of Prussia and Austria — Prussian
Custom-House Confederation — Austrian Policy towards
Russia and Turkey — History of the estahlishment of Russian
Ascendancy in the Northern Provinces of Turkey, and at the
Mouth of the Danuhe — ^Political Condition of Moldavia, Wal*-
lacUa, Bulgaria, and Servia — Anxiety of Austria — Her endea-
vours to oppose Russia hy her Diplomacy at Constantinople
and Athens — The Conduct of England, and Appreheusion and
Fear of Austria as to the Maritime Powers— Reflections on
the Dangers with which England is threatened by a further
advance of Russia towards the Mediterranean — And on the
PoHcy hy which those Dangers may he averted.
The foreign policy of Austria aims essentially at
peace. The consolidation of her financial system,
the development of her national resources, the im-
provement of her institutions, the expediency of
reductions in her military expenditure, — all require
the continuance of that European repose wliich it has
408 AinSTRIA. [CH^
been her great object to preserve. Hence, notwith-
standing her dread of the democratic principle, she
has acquiesced in the various political changes which
have occurred mthin the last few years in France,
Spain^ and Portugal ; neither, were changes, similar
ijQ character^ to be extended to other European
countries, would she interfere to impede them by
armed intervention, so long as the tranquillity of her
own possessions were not immediately menaced;
for the same practical spirit and singleness of view
to her own national interests, which characterises
her internal administration, extends likewise to her
foreign relations. To trace the course of tiiis uni-
form spirit in its actual operation, would be at all
times a matter of curious research ; but at the present
moment, when the enlightened statesman cannot fail
to perceive what mighty political results may in all
probability depend on the line of conduct which
Austria may adopt, it is a matter of no ordinary im-
portance that her real position and feelings in regard
to foreign nations should be fully understood and
justly viewed. In the present humble attempt to
elucidate a subject so extensive, and which, on some
points, has been considerably misconceived, I shall
endeavour to divide it into three branches ; although
these are in practice necessarily intermixed, and all
combine, the one vrith the other, in forming the
general scheme of her foreign diplomacy. I shall
consider Austrian policy as it regards, first, Italy
and France; on which a few brief notices will
XVI.] FORB ION POLICY. 409
sui&ce, for here its course is plain and simple :
secondly, Prussia and the German states ; which
will require a somewhat more extended discus-*
sion : thirdly^ Russia^ Turkey ^ and the East ; a
portion of the subject far exceeding the other two
in the importance of its general bearings ; and for
the due appreciation of which it will be necessary to
take a view of the past and present political conduct
not of Austria only, but also of Russia, including her
actual po6ition> on the side of Turkey, and of the
countries on the Black Sea. I shall offer in con-
clusion, a few observations on the connection of
British interests with the future decisions and move-
ments of these two great empires, as well as on the
course of policy which she has hitherto pursued, and
that which may seem most probably conducive to her
future welfare.
The point to which Austria is most tremblingly
alive, is the conseivation of the Itidian kingdom ; for
she knows that France is there her constant and
restless rival. She has had abundant experience of
that spirit of propagandism, and that love of turmoil,
which are rife among the French people ; and she
has been made to feel how defective has been the
government, either in point of inclination or of
ability, to suppress these molesting propensities of its
subjects. On the one side and the other, monarchical
order or popular liberty are the pretexts, but power
over rival domination is the object. Hence arises
410 AUSTRIA. [CH.
the necessity of a large development of military
means in the vicinity of the irontier towards France,
which is nowhere else required ; and hence the
adoption of a systaoi of jealous and anxious policy in
regard to the affairs of all the Italian sbverdignties,
which is not observed towards those of Germany or
the North. France, unable to make a direct im*
pression upon Lombardy, has endeavoured to effect
her object through the smaller states; and where
courts could not be gained, she has sought to
influence the people. Austria has perceived ike
importance of meeting this policy in every shape.
She would probably feel comparative indifference as
to any changes of institutions, however republican,
that should take place at Naples or at Turin, could
the effects of those changes be confined witMn the
limits of their respective dominions; or even could
they, when made, be maintained by a really ipde*
pendent body of citizens: but she knows that in
every such alteration, France would be the gain^,
and that whatsoever of augmented influence or power
France obtained, would be directed by means, open
or concealed, against the stability of the Lombardo*-
Venetian kingdom. Hence, whenever called upon
by their respective governments to suppress revo-
lution, she has promptly taken military possession of
Piedmont and of Naples ; evapuating those countries,
however, as soon as the necessity of her interference
had passed away. On the same principle, in 183s^
when the Pontifical States becanie the scene of insur-
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 411
rectioD, she held an army on the frontier ready to
obey the Papal summons. His Holiness announced
to the different powers of Europe the existence of
the troubles ; the remedial measures on which be had
dedded^ with a view of removing the asserted grounds
of discontent; and the special mission of Cardinal
Albani into Romagna, to caiTy those measures into
effect. Among the official replies to these communis
cations, that of the French ambassador at Rome ex-
pressed the high approval of his government, of the
measures taken and intended by the Pope ; and the
strongest assurances of its anxious desire for the
tranquillity and the independence of the Papal States.
The insurrection however continuing to extend, and
having even mastered the Roman troops, the prin-
cipal inhabitants of Bologna and its territory applied
to the Austrian commander (who had remained with
his forces within the Lombardo- Venetian frontier) for
some protection against the fury of triumphant Car-
bonarism. The Austrian commander replied, that
he could only pass the frontier at the request ci
Cai-diaal Albani. The request was made; the
Austrians advanced; occupied the four Legations;
and suppressed the insurrection. After the great
object of restored tranquillity had been thus attained,
the French expedition, which had been despatched
without any intimation of its destination being made
to the Papal or to any other Court, appeared before
Aneona, and forcibly seized possession of the city
and its defences. The Court of Rome in vain re-
412 AUSTRIA. [CH.
moDStrated against ttiis violation of public law, and
of diplomatic assurances ; and complained of its effect
in exciting the discontented to a renewal of those
troubles, which the Court of the Tuilleries had ex-?
pressed its anxious wish to see suppressed. The
occupation however continued. Austria did not
choose to risk a general war on account of it, but she
saw in it a further ground to distrust the intentions
and the good faith of France. It aggravated the
severity of her Italian policy, and her watchful inter-
ference in the concerns of all the Italian states. In
each of them she felt herself engaged in a contest
with France ; and to counteract the action of French
excitation on the lower classes, her position impelled
her to throw the whole weight of her power on the
side of the Courts. It is highly probable that the
powerful and statesmanlike genius of the French
monarch may at all times have rendered him per-
sonally averse to retain a possession which, having
beto seized in treachery, could only be held at a
sacrifice of national honour, and consequently of
national interest. He may have effected the evacua-
tion at the earliest moment when a temporary calm
in the public mind enabled him to do so ; but even
if this be the case, the very reflection that such an
occupation should have continued for so long a time
in obedience to mere popular clamour, is little likely
to appease the apprehensions of Austria. Whatever
be her confidence in the intentions of the sovereign,
she cannot but perceive the weakness of his govern-
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 413
ment, and the feeble control he possesses over the
inherent unpetuosity of his subjects. Preserving,,
therefore, the external semblance of amity with the
Court of the Tuilleries, she keeps herself ever pre-
pared on the occurrence of any emergency, to take
military occupation of a part, or possibly the whole^
of the Italian peninsula; and hence> as against
Francey and in regard especially to Italy, the real
attitude of Austria may be said to be of a jealous,
and somewhat of a warlike, character.
We turn now to trace her political course in regard
to Prussia and the German States. Dreading above
all things a resumption of that preponderance over
Europe, which France had enjoyed during the reign
of Napoleon, Austria has, from the moment of the
general peace in 1814, never been blind to the possi-
bility of similar danger from another quarter. At
the congress of Vienna, the actual and probably pro-*
gressive aggrandisement of Russia were not unheeded,
and Austria advocated the re-establishment of the
kingdom of Poland ; for which purpose she would
have restored Gallicia, taking elsewhere a territorial
reimbursement : but this project was rendered abor-
tive, by the refusal of Russia and Prussia to sur-
render their portion of the plundered provinces* It
became next the object of Austria, as indeed of the
other principal powers also, with the exception of
France, to consolidate central Europe, as far as
possible, into large masses ; and, in so doing, to eX"*
tinguish the smaller principalities, whose existence.
414 AUSTRIA. [CH.
it was asserted, would afford to intrigue the ever
ready means of producing dissensions and animo-
sities. With regard to that host of feudal ehief-
tains, whose dominions under the Germanic empire
had hardly exceeded the limits of their own imme-
diate estates, the principle had been already acted on,
in the former political arrangements made under the
influence of Napoleon. With some exceptions, they
had been deprived of their sovereign rights; and,
under the name of mediatized princes and counts, had
become the subjects of those greater sovereigns, in
the body of whose dominions their petty territories
were enclosed. To apply similar measures, however,
to princes of a higher class, was a matter of much
difficulty. To say nothing of the vehement remon-
strances urged both by princes and subjects, against
the arbitrary transfer of smaller territories merely to
suit the policy of the greater monarchs, it was soon
discovered by those monarchs themselves, to their
mutual embarrassment, that they had all of them
entered the congress more or less fettered by private
engagements. On the retreat of Napoleon from
Moscow, it had become the object, first of Russia, and
next of the other leading pow^s, to secure the aid of
the several German pnnces, who until that period
had been under the influence of France ; but in order
to obtain their co-operation, it had been found neces-
sary to enter into certain previous engagements
touching the separate interests of each, in the event
of the general success. Thus the states of second and
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 415
third order made their stipulatioos with Russia or
with Austria^ in fiivour not only of their own imme-
diate objects, but of those also of still smaller princes,
with whom they were connected by blood or alliance.
England at the same time insisted on the elevation of
Hanover, with a suitable territory, to an equality of
royal dignity with Wirtemburg and Bavaria, and
likewise on the unimpaired territorial power of the
Brunswick princes. Russia would allow no portion
of Polish land beyond that which had fallen to Aus^
tria and Prussia under the former partitions, to be
severed from that nominal kingdom of Poland which
was to remain in real subjection to herself. Prussia
urged as a matter of right, that some large accession
of territory should be allotted to her, in order in a
slight degree to compensate the acquisitions of power
made by her great confederates. The policy of Aus-
tria was of a less embarrassing character^ although
equally directed by views of power and of influence.
Having secured her Lombardo- Venetian kingdom,
and extended her line of coast on the eastern side of
the Adriatic to the frontier of Albania, she claimed
in central Europe only those dominions which she
had possessed in the year 1792, and even abandoned
her claim to the restoration of Belgium, which up tp
that year had forrned a part of her territories. This
abandonment effected that consolidation which created
the kingdom of the Netherlands : but consolidations
in the other parts of Europe were no easy matter,
amid the clashing pretensions, obstacles, and epibar-*
416 AUSTRIA [CH.
rassmento to which I have above alluded. 'Hie
negotiations went on in many respects uncordially ;
and wer^ productive, in some quarters, of anger and
disappointment. An arrangement however for the
states of Germany, widely different from th^t which
at present exists, was in progress, and would pro-
bably have been adopted ; when the sudden return of
Napoleon from Elba put an end at once to the con-
gress and its plans. On the intelligence of that great
event being received at Vienna, the immediate re-
newal of hostilities was anticipated. The anxiety of
Russia, Austria and England was directed to the
suppression of all discontents which had arisen
among the minor sovereigns ; and to the removal of
every motive which might impel any of them to
waver towards French alliance. Concessions on all
sides were hastily made ; and several sovereign prin-
cipalities are now seen on the map of Europe, which,
but for that event, would have been expunged from
it for ever. A remarkable exemplification of the
diplomatic dispatch excited by the return of Napo-
leon, occurred in regard to the kingdom of Saxony.
At the time when the principal part of the German
sovereigns made their conventions with Russia and
Austria, and joined the great alliance of 1813, the
Saxon monarch renewed his compact with Napoleon,
and, as a reward for the continued adherence to the
cause of France, would, in the event of her success,
have received the sovereignty of Polsmd, On the
one side and the other, independence or political de-
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 417
struction were involved in the gain or loss of the
mighty stakes in contest. The parties stood upon
the hazard of the die, and the Saxon was the losing
side. The victorious allies proposed at first to extin-
guish the kingdom altogether, and to annex the
whole of it to Prussia ; but difficulties occurred in
the details, and great resistance was made both by
the king and by his subjects. The congress refused
to the king permission to repair to Vienna : but, in
order to facilitate the projected arrangements, they
assigned to him a temporary residence at Presburg,
and appointed three of their body, the Duke of Wel-
Ungton, the Prince de Metternich, and the Prince de
Talleyrand, to hold conferences with him in its be-
half : in other words, to declare to him its ultimate
pleasure, and to arrange with him the mode of car-
jying that pleasure into effect Early in March
(1815) the three great diplomatists were at Pres-
burg for this purpose, and an exalted personage, un-
connected with the objects of their mission, had ac-
companied them as a mutual friend. M . de Metter-
nich had his apartments in a separate residence ; the
other three occupied a portion of a public edifice,
M. de Talleyrand having rooms on the one side, the
Duke of Wellington on the other, and the personage
alluded to being accommodated with a saloon between
the two. Early on a certain morning, while it was
yet dark, the latter was awakened by the approach of
a figure to his bed-side, habited in his night-dress,
VOL. II. 2 E
418 AUSTRIA. [CH.
and bearing a light in the one hand, a letter in the
other. This unexpected visitor was the Duke of
Wellington. " Prince/* said he, addressing Inm in
French, " you understand English, read this." It
was a hurried communication from Vienna, announ-
cing that a courier had just arrived with intelligence
of the landing of Napoleon at Cannes. " Now," con-
tinued his Grace, " you must do me the favour to
get up, and carry this letter to M. de Talleyrai^d ;"
and having so said, he returned to his own apartment
with all appearance of the most unruffled composure.
The prince did as he was requested ; and M. de Tal-
leyrand dispatched the important letter to M. de
Metternjch. It was now between five and six
o'clock. About eight the three diplomatists came
together. M. de Metternich and M. de Talleyrand
had both in the interim received couriers from Vi-
enna, conveying similar communications with that
which had first reached the duke ; but the Saxon
monarch remained ignorant of the important newsi
and tremblingly anxious for his future fate. Hi^
Majesty was suddenly called to conference, and sur-
prised at the conciliatory tone now adopted towards
him. A short protocol was prepared and signed,
settling the kingdom of Saxony as it now exists ; and
before eleven o'clock in the same forenoon, the thre^
deputies from the congress had left Presburg on their
return to Vienna.
The repose of Europe was once more assured by
the victory of Waterloo, but events and indications
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. • 419
had occurred during the hundred days of Napoleon's
rule, which caused to Austria considerable dis-
(Juietude. In the former reign of Napoleon, a
splendid but absolute despotism had been the cha-
racter of his domination; but on the return from
Elba, he sought to establish his government on
maxims of popular power ; and hence a sudden and
vehement impulse was given to the democratic prin-
ciple throughout a considerable part of Europe. The
inhabitants of the Rhenish principalities had shown
themselves eager to resume their connexion with
France, should an opportunity occur for their so
doing. The subjects of several of the smaller
German states had evinced the utmost eagerness for
political rights. The Russian emperor had been
obliged to suspend the march of his army towards
the Rhine, by the manifestation of an intended revo-
lution in Poland ; and it was apprehended with some
reason, that if the scale of victory at Waterloo had
inclined for France, a large portion of Western
Germany would have risen in arms to support her
cause. Hence, for mutual defence, and for the joint
support of the monarchical principle, the alliance
between Austria, Russia, and Prussia, was drawn far
more close than would probably have been otherwise
the case ; but still the cordiality of that alliance was
little extended beyond the general objects for which
it was created. Austria and Prussia soon became
rivals for the political preponderance in Germany
itself; and as this rivalship may possibly lead to
2e2
420 AUSTRIA. [CH
results of interest, a few words in explanation of it
may not be superfluous.
The Germanic body, as now constituted, consists
of thirty-eight sovereign states, large and small, all
of whom are represented by deputies at the General
Diet. Among the articles of union which were
agreed on in 1815, it is specified, that in all the
states of the confederation, a constitutional assembfy
of the States General shall be established ; and that
diversity of Christian faith shall occasion no difr
ference in any of them as to the enjoyment of civil
or political rights. It is added, that the diet shall
take into its own consideration the means of im-
proving and settling the condition of the Jews ; the
formation of some uniform rules relative to the free-
dom of the press ; the regulation of commerce and
intercourse between the different states of the caUf
federation ; and that of maritime commerce on the
principles adopted by the congress of Vienna. The
vague terms in which these articles are expressed,
have admitted abundant latitude in their execution.
'^ Constitutional Assemblies of the States General,"
for instance, are said, in verbal compliance with the
enactment, to have been established in almost every
Germanic state, but, as is evident, with the widest
diffisrences of composition and of faculty^ Those of
Austria and of Prussia, under the name of the " Pro-
vincial Stande," are wholly directed by the crowd:
in Bavaria and some other states, they enjoy larger
privileges, but are still mainly under its guidance.:
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 4dl
while in a few of the principalities^ the principle of
popular influence has mainly prevailed. The whole
of them, however, are subjected, by the act of con-
federation, to the decrees of the diet in all matters
which are deemed by the diet to be of general con*
cernment — ^such as the regulation of the press, of the
universities, of international communications, &c.
•
&e. ; and hence have arisen frequent collisions be*
tween this great council of the union, and the legis-
lative bodies of its component sovereignties. In the
diet itself, conflicting opinions have been urged on
different points; and many matters have been left
in abeyance, or settled by temporary compromise,
with a view to the avoidance of actual dissension.
In this state of things, Austria and Prussia, although
too sagacious to admit of any discord as to the lead^
ing measures whereby the popular ascendancy was
to be resisted, have been competitors for the ruling
influence over the smaller states of which the diet is
composed. Austria, enjoying by the original com-
pact the perpetual presidency, possesses both on that
account, and by reason of her extensive dominions,
a decided preponderance of power, which Prussia
could not by direct means hope to weaken. Hence
the latter betook herself to the formation of that
great oounter-confederation, the Commercial Union ;
which, with the exception of Austria* Hanover,
Brunswick, and the Hanseatic Towns, now comprises
every state of Germany. Of it, Prussia is the chief,
and the director ; and although avowedly established
422 AU9TRIA. [CH.
for merely eommercial purposes, it has become, under
the able guidance of Prussia, a great political engine.
Austria, awakened at length from an ill-timed indif«*
ference, endeavours now to form a counter-com-^
mercial confederacy which shall be under her own
guidance, and by means of which, she may wield the
injfluence of the south against that of the north. This
confederacy would comprise the states on and dear
the Danube, Bavaria, Wirtemburg, and others,
which it is supposed that a greater community of
special interests, and a system o( mutual concessions^
might induce to form a combination with Austria, anA
thus to abandon, or at least to modify, their con-r
nexion with Prussia — while Prussia, on her sidoi
seeks fresh accessions of strength in the conciliation
and addition of states not yet included in her union,
and may probably extend her viewjB to some not
strictly belonging to Germany. A shadet but per-
haps a shade only, of difference in political feeling
accompanies this rivalship of the two monarchies*
Prussia is somewhat more inclined to liberal prin«-
ciples than Austria ; but, were that iiiclmation eveu
stronger than it is^ she could not venture much to
indulge it. She dreads the ebullitions of democracy
in her Rhenish possessions ; and she is aware, that
in most of those smaller states which it is her aim to
influence;^ the aristocratical influence is dominant
where the monarchical is weak. Thus, the positioii
of Austria towards Germany generally, is one of
high, but not undivided influence ; and, as towards
XVI.] FOREIGN POUCY. 423
Prussia in particular, her relations are those of union
as to leading principles of policy, but by no means
of cordiality as to particular interests.
We have finally to notice the position of Austria
with regard to Russia and Turkey, and in so doing,
some considerations on the general policy of Russia,
and on that of England as connected therewith, will
naturally force themselves on our attention. How-
ever closely united have been the two imperial sove-
reigns in a common alliance for the support of the
monarchical principle^ Austria has viewed with ill-
(fissembled anxiety the tendencies of Russia to per-
petual aggrandizement; but, neither she nor the
western nations can fairly charge upon those tenden-
cies that they have been ever veiled in secrecy and
disavowal, or that their successful development has
taken Europe by surprise. For more than a cen-
tury, and especially since the accession of Catharine,
the policy of the czars has been directed to territorial
extension at the expense of Turkey, aiming openly
at the ultimate possession or control of the Bos*-
phorus and the Dardanelles. Owing to the busy con-
flicts with France, and the repose necessary after the
termination of the great struggle, the march of that
policy was in the time of Alexander suspended in
appearance, but in appearance only; his diplom«M3y
was ever in action, while his arms were at rest.
The movement of Nicholas has been more decidedly
onward ; and in following up, as he is doing, the
national policy, he deserves the credit at all events
4S4 AUSTRIA. - [CH.
due to a soi^erBign, irka, neither diqied by flatteries
nor ittfluenoed by prejudices, nor nev^r traubfiii^
himself with the concerns of other countries save as
they are connected with the welfare of his own, but
always alive to improve their errors to his own ad«*
vantage, looks with a steady singleness of purpose
worthy of better means than he has at times em*
ployed, to the interests and advantage of that nation
whereof he is the ruler. The success of his pdiey
may well cause the alarm of Europe ; but it appeara
unjust to make that success a matter of charge
against his person and government, because Europe
may not have been sufficiently united or sagacious to
arrest its progress.
With a view to understanding the actual position
of Austria, it may be requisite to notice the proceed**
ings of Russia in some of their leading pdnts.
Persons who have watched the course of events in
Greece, are aware of the policy with which Rusfida
fanned the flame of resistance, until she had effected
the separation of that limb of the OttiDman empire;
as also of the adroitness with which she subsequently
kept alive her influence in the new kingdom, and has
now probably succeeded in establishing that ascen-
dancy over the councils of Otho, which was for a
time eclipsed under the ministiy of Count Armans-
perg. Concomitant with the Grecian conflict was
that two years* war, which first brought the Russian
armies within eighty miles of Constantinople. The
Turks applied to England and to France for aid ;
XTI.] FOREI0N POLICY. 425
but tiiey applied in vain. They had beocme exceed**
ipigly unpopular in Western Europe, on aoebuht o£
tiieir refusal to recognise the independence of the
Greeks ; and the cause of the latter was unguardedly
viewed as id^itified with that of their co-religionists
of the North. The Russian forces advanced to Adri«
anopk. That they proceeded no farther on their
triumphant career, has been ascribed to the small*
ness of their number ; to their feeble and disorg»*
nixed state ; and above all, to the tardy opposition of
England, whose admiral was prepared to engage,
and of course partially to destroy, the Russian fleet
at the Dardanelles, if the army had made any farther
advance. On the authority of information derived
from various and peculiar sources and among others
from timt of officers of foreign powers, then in the
Russian camp to witness the proceedings I am led
to the conviction that neither of these was the deter-
mining motive; but a detail of the consideratioiis
which actually led to the pacification and retreat
would be foreign to the immediate object before us.
Suffice' it to say, that the triumph of Russian policy
was complete ; but, from the period of the Adrianople
treaty which was now concluded, that policy assumed
a different practical character. It sought to weaJc/W
and disorganize the victim, and then, as a friend, to
encumber it with help. By intrigues of which it
would be difficult to fathom the depth, and wherein
it is tolerably certain that Russia was l^ no means
the only mover (probably, indeed, not the prindpiLl
426 AUSTRIA. [CH.
one)^ the Pacha of Egypt was induced to assume
an attitude of hostility towards the Porte, and to in-
vade the Syrian provinces. The sultan made a last
appeal for the friendly interposition of England and
France, but, as before, the appeal was vain. A word
from England to Mahomet Ali would have deterred
him from proceeding. There may or may not have
been adequate reasons^ as connected with our then
political relations on the side of France and oth^wise,
why tli^ interference of England should have been
refused : but, be those reasons what they might, the
Porte could be no party to them ; and, thus deserted
by the Western powers, she was compelled to throw
herself into the arms of Russia. The Pacha of
Egypt advanced by rapid marches^ and threatened
the sultan even in his capital ; a Russian force was,
at the sultan's urgent desire, transferred across the
Black Sea, and encamped as protectors within sight
of the seraglio. That word which England refused
to utter, was pronounced by Russia. Mahomet Aii
was stopped, and Russia acquired the advantages
which her policy deserved, and which England and
France had thrown upon her. Four more provinces
were severed from the Turkish domination. 'Hie
treaty of Unkiar Skelessi created an intimate union
of ''offensive and defensive alliance" between the
sultan and the czar, which conferred on the latter
the power of interfering in all the concerns of the
Ottoman government; while the sultan was made
to feel, that to the protecting friendship of Nicholas
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 427
he was indebted for bis crown, and all that i-emained
of his domimon$.
lAmg antecedait to the period just referred to, the
views of Russia had been fixed on Moldavia and
Walkehia. She was already, in and before the year
1812, possessed in absolute dominion of the eastern
provinces of Poland, and the northern coasts of the
Euxine as far westward as the Dniester. The pres*
sure of her aggressive policy was, in its natural course
therefore, next directed against these important prin-
cipalities, which, extending from the Dniester to the
Danube, filled the whole intermediate space betwixt
the Euxine and the Austrian territories. In both
Moldavia and Wallachia the property of the soil had
remained in the hands of Christians, m^nbers chiefly
of the Greek church as established in Russia, from
the earliest period of the Turkish settlement ; and the
government had been administered by Christian sub-
jects of the Porte, who, with the title of Hospodars,
were deputed from Constantinople for that purpose.
The administration of the hospodars was usually
corrupt and tyrannical, having for its object the
Banassing of as much wealth as possible duiing tlie
limited period of delegated sovereignty ; and^ as the^
oppression of these Fanariot Christians from time to
time excited resistance, it had become the duty of the
Turkish garrisons to suppress disorders, which thdr
own rude and violent method of military pacification
not unfrequently tended to aggravate. Such a state
of things had been very propitious for die introduc*
428 AUSTRIA. [cm.
tioQ of HUissiaa influenoe. An grievances, geoemlly
real, sometimes imaginary, were from time to time
proelaimed,' appeal was made to Russian eompas^on,
which may perhaps have occasionally suggested snh^
jects of complaint, that would not have occurred to
the natives themselves. Under Russian mediation
constitutions have now been conferred, by which the
entire government in each of the principalities is
placed in the hands of the Christian natives, under,
tiie direction of a hospodar no longer removable at
pleasure, but appointed for life ; and as those high
officers owe their appointment to Russian recom-*
mendation, their government is regulated by the com^
manding influence of Russian consuls. Christiana
may alone possess land within the principalities ; and<
they are, by special convention with the Porte, under^
the guaranteed protection of Russia. No Turkish
forts may be erected, or Turkish pickets stationed, on
Walladiian and Moldavian soil : but to the hospo'^
dars it is permitted to raise and support native troops
at will, for avowed sanatory purposes ; and also at
their own discretion, or in other words at the recom-
mendation of Russia, to place along their entire line
quarantine defences, which the Turks are compdled
to respect The Turks receive from WaUadiia a
n(»ninal tribute of about £3000 sterling annually,
and a still smaller sum from Moldavia. They exer-
cise no command, no power, military or civil ; and
that nominal allegiance which the principalities pro*
fess to Copstantinople, will, at any moment Russia
XTl.] FOREIGN POtlCY. 429
chooses, be transferried to St. Petersburg, without tbe
most minute alteration in the internal administration.
But while Russia has thus obtained the absolute
political control of the principalities, she has likewise
secured for herself, at their expense, a most important
acquisition of actual territory. Up to the year 1812,
the Dniester was the boundary of the Russian domi-
nions on the Black Sea ; and Bessarabia, which com-
prises the ]ine of coast from that river southward to
the Danube, was a constituent part of Moldavia. All
the mouths of the Danube thus belonged to the sul-
tan, as did both the banks of the river upwards, for
the last several hundred miles of its course; Mol-
davia and Wallachia, forming the northern bank
as far as the Austrian confines of Hungary, while
Bulgaria, Servia, and Bosnia, extended upwards
along the southern bank, till they also reached the
Austrian provinces of Croatia and Dalmatia. By the
treaty of 1812, Bessarabia, detached from Moldavia,
was conceded to Russia in actual sovereignty, the
Pruth being made the new boundary between the two
empires. This was an important political acquisition ;
since by it Russia became possessed of the entire
coast of the Euxine as far down as the northernmost
branch of the Delta of the Danube ; her territory ex-
tending upwards along that branch for about sixty
miles, to the point where it is entered by the Pruth.
It may be here desirable briefly to explain the
geographical peculiarities connected with the mouths
of the Danube. The Delta is formed by three prin-
430 AUSTRIA. [CH.
eipal branches, diverging from each other at a point
about fifty miles inland from the present coast of the
Euxine, bat often connected tc^ether by subadiary
diannels passing from one to the other, and thus con-
stitnting a very large extent of low marshy islands
covered wilh high grass and weeds. The northern-
most of these, the KiUa branch, winch -became the
Russian boundary by the treaty of 1812, has at its
mouth only six feet of water, besides bong otherwise
much impeded by sands, and consequently cannot
be entered by vessels larger than mere lighters. The
other two, the Saline branch and the Georgevskoi
branch, were both navigable by small merchantmen,
3nd they remained to Turkey.
Thus far, therefore, Russia had no control what-
ever over either of the navigable entrances. Her
Kilia branch was even almost useless to herself;
since vessels drawing more than five feet water could
only reach her establishments upon it, by ascending
one of the other two channels, and re-descending the
Kilia from the point of its divergence. The treaty of
Adrianople, in 1839, conferred on her policy another
triumph. By it, all the islands of the Delta were
added to her territory. The southernmost branch,
the Georgevskoi, was rendered the boundary be-
tween the empires ; and although the Turks remained
in possession of its southern bank, this became use-
less to them from the circumstance, whether acci-
dental or intentional, of its channel being, about the
period of the treaty, rendered unnavigable by large
XVI.] FORBIQN POLICY. 431
masses of artificial obstruction planged iato it, which
in all probability it will never be found practicable
to remove.
The SuKne branch is therefore the only one which
can now be navigated, and both sides of that branch
are Kussian territory. It is true that one of the ar*
tides of the Adrianople treaty contains a stipulation,
that on no one of the islands, nor on the Turkish
bank of the Georgevskoi within a distance of two
hours (five English miles) from the river, shall any
fort be erected save for the purpose of quarantine ;
but even of this stipulation^ the advantage was cal-
culated to result . alone to Russia. That Turkey
should form sanatory establishments was of course
not to be expected ; but Russia has on her part
availed herself of the privilege, by establishing on
the south side of the Suline a quarantine post, which
she has since converted into a small fort by throw-
ing about it military defences. Close in front of it
was moored, when I passed it^ a small armed vessel
of war ; while along the north bank of the Suline,. up
to the confluence of the Pruth, is stationed a line, not
indeed of forts, but of military guard-^houses with
Russian pickets at short distances from each other,
which are competent wholly to control the naviga-
tion. The entrance of the Danube, therefore^ is .now
absolutely in the territory of Russia, whose influence
further extends along the northern bank to the con-
fines of Hungary. At one period an inclination was
evinced, to claim the right of levying tolls on foreign
432 AUSTRIA. [CH.
vessels entering and departing; but, on resistance
being made to this unauthorized assumption, the
government disclaimed the intention to enforce it,
and ascribed to error on the part of its subordinates
the attempt which had been made. Russia now
exercises no further authority, than that of requiring
all vessels entering from the Black Sea to bring-to
before her quarantine post, and to submit to her
registration the statements of their nati(mality, car-
goes, and equipage. Austria, supported by the
Western states, has insisted on the principle laid
down at the peace of 1814, that the free access of all
rivers to the sea should not be obstructed by any
powers settled on their banks; and this principle
will be enforced so long as the relations of amity
may continue. But it is obvious, that in the oppo-
site contingency, Russia has created for herself the
means of commanding the entrance, whensoever she
may assume a hostile attitude.
We have seen the successful aggressions of Russia
on the northern side of the Danube, and the islands
of its Delta ; let us now observe her progress
also on the southern bank. The Turkish provinces
there extending upwards from the Black Sea, oppo-
site to Wallachia and the greater part of Hungary,
are Bulgaria and Servia ; the population of both of
which, especially the latter, is principally Christian.
Servia, although the more inland of the two, is by
far the more important in point of population, civili-
zation, and general resources ; and in it a Russian
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 433
policy similar to that so eflFectually developed in Mol-
davia and Wallachia has for many years been in
operation. As grievances, partly arising from bar-
barous misrule, partly from the suggestions of foreign
instigation, have excited internal troubles and disor-
ders, the mediating friendship of Russia has urged
on the Porte the expediency of granting more free
institutions to the oppressed Christian population.
Under her influence, the Prince Milosch, a man
utterly devoid of education, but of great natural
powers — a man taken under Russian protection when
he had betrayed the confidence of his own sovereign —
has been appointed to be the civil governor of the
province. The prince naturally receives his im-
pulses from that power to which he owes his station,
and which can alone support him in it. The people
as naturally follow the same direction; but in the
mean time, as Milosch is merely th6 civil governor,
and the military command of Servia yet rests in the
Turkish Pacha of Belgrade, the country has not
been permitted to lapse into quietude. Plans of
constitutions are proposed on one side, and opposed
on another. They are partially approved at Con-
stantinople ; then difficulties are raised at St. Peters-
burg, and new references are made to Servia. Ob-
jections by Milosch ensue ; and these are followed
by further references to one or other or both of the
capitals. Thus irritation is kept alive; soi-disant
liberal and anti-liberal parties are formed among the
ignorant and semi-barbarous population; and this
course will go on, until riots and revolts compel the
VOL. II. 2f
434 AUSTRIA, [CH.
Turkish garrisons to employ force in the restoration
of order. The cinielties of the infidels will be theo
proclaimed and exaggerated ;— the mediating re-
monstrances of Russia will compel the removal of
the Turkish troops j — a nominal supremacy and a
petty tribute will be guaranteed for a few years
to the Porte ; — and a new and most important
pi-ovince will be added to the rule of the Russian
consuls.
The people of Bulgaria are less civilized than
those of Servia ; but there also the same system is in
progress. Popular disorders have more than once
occurred, similar in character to those which origin-
ated the existing order of things in Servia. They
have been suppressed ; they will again break out and
be suppressed again ; but the course of events will
proceed ; and Bulgaria, added to Servia, will give to
Russia the whole range of Northern Turkey to the
frontiers of Bosnia. This line of policy will be at-
tended with no hostile aggression on the part of
Russia ; no cause or pretext of war in any quarter ;
but internal disorders will exist in the provinces, and
gradually produce their natural effect. In due time,
the throne of the Sultan will be endangered in his
capital. In all internal and foreign difficulties,
Russia will be invoked as a friend ; her powerful aid
will be called in to suppress evils, which it may not
be impossible that on some occasions she may have
herself created ; and when she ultimately seizes the
Dardanelles, it will be in the name, at the request,
and for the preservation, of the Sultan.
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 435
Ab the result of these gradual invasions^ Austria
perceives at this moment that one great mass of her
territory, comprising Hungary, Transylvania, and
Gallicia^ is actually enclosed on three sides by pro-
vinces which receive the law of their conduct from
the cabinet of St. Petersburg. Neither can she view
this close approximation of so powerful a neighbour
— in itself sufl5ciently alarming — without some appre*
hension as to a peculiar point of internal weakness
connected therewith, existing in her own dominions.
In Hungary, in Transylvania, and in Gallicia, the
general feeling is no doubt strongly opposed to Rus**
sia ; and, far from aiding the views of that ambitious
power, it would be exerted to the uttermost in supr
port of any attempt to reduce the extent of her domi-
nation, especially on the side of Poland ; but it can-
not be forgotten that in all those states and their ap-
pendages, more particularly in Southern Hungary,
Sclavonia, and Croatia, a considerable portion of the
population professes that form of faith, the oriental
Greek, which constitutes the established religion of
Russia. Hence arises a species of sympathy which
has been greatly serviceable to Russian policy in
other quarters, and which must be a source of in-
creasing disquietude as the two empires come more
closely in contact. Even at the present moment, the
able diplomacy of Russia is said not to be blind to
this important element of future power. Under the
Austrian sceptre, the Greek hierarchy and their flocks
enjoy indeed a full equality of civil rights, and to a
2f2
436 AUSTRIA. [CH.
certain extent peculiar privileges and endowments :
but still the church of Rome is the great and opulent
establishment of the state. This they perceive with
no friendly feeling : while» on the other hand, they
do not forget, and in some parts it is believed that
they are not allowed to forgety tbat wheresoever the
power of the Czar extends, there the Greek is the
favoured, if not the dominant religion.
It cannot be doubted that Austria must have per*
ceived with painful anxiety these gradual approaches
of her mighty neighbour ; and that she would long
since have sought to arrest their progress, had her
position in Europe enabled her to do so. But Austria
could not act alone; an^ little could she expect a
frank co-operation from the western powers. The cor*
dial aid of England she could hardly anticipate^
while she perceived her conduct and her principles
systematically assailed by. the reproaches and invec-
tives, not of individuals only, but even of senators
and statesmen; and this, too, accompanied or fol-
lowed by an arrangement of foreign policy, the
avowed object of which was^ on the basis of differ-
ences in the theory of internal government, to array
the western against the eastern states of Europe^
Whatever may have been in other respects the
merits or demerits of the policy thus pursued by Eng-
land, one result could not fail to attend it : it cut off
from Austria, at the most critical period, the means
and the hope of forming with her, for their common
interests an intimate and confidential alliance.
XVI.] FOREIGN POLICY. 437
On the side of France the alienation from Aus-
tria has been still greater. The competition for
the command of Italy would have alone sufficed to
have prevented any cordiality of union : but, besides,
France has been knoAvn to pursue her objects by
means less scrupulous and justifiable than we may
hope would be always adopted in England ; and one of
those means has ever been the excitement of internal
commotions in other countries. In regard to » the
Italian provinces of Austria, that restless desire of
creating discontents which prevails among the people
of France has been not unfrequently held up by their
government as a menace in terrorem over Austria,
and has had its necessary effect. Austria, dreading
the encroachments of Russia, has dreaded still more
strongly the disturbing forces of the western powers ;
and that involuntary bond of concord which has been
termed the union of the despotic principle has beeii
of late years little more than the instinct of self-pre-
servation. It would have been the height of temerity
in Austria to have incurred the hostility of Russia,
with all its train of probable consequences, — increased
financial exigencies — augmented armies — invasion of
her Hungarian frontier,— with other points to which I
will not now allude ; while her Lombard provinces
would be threatened by the arms or the intrigues of
France, and while England might see their invasion
or their disorganization, possibly with pleasure, at all
^events with indiflerence.
Pressed by these considerations, it has been the
1
I*
438 AUSTRIA, [Ott.
endeavour of Austria to sustain, as far as she eonld,
the integrity of the Ottoman empire, without endtui^
gering the friendship of Russia. Had she been inclined
to increase her own dominions at the expense of
Turkey, she has had ample pretext for doing so,
since not a year passes without her frontier towards
Bosnia being invaded by the half-civilised subjects of
the Porte ; and whenever her complaints have been
urged at Constantinople, the reply has mainly consisted
in expressicms of regret that the Sultan has not the
power to control the ferocious borderers, and the
desire that Austria would take their punkhment iid;o
her own hands. Yet Austria has contented herself
with the castigation of the immediate assailaate^ with-
out ever extending the limits of her own territory.
She was no party to the disoi^anization of the Gre-
cian provinces, or to the establishment of that feeble
kingdom, in the creation of which she may have only
viewed an additional lever for the power of Russia.
By appointing a consul in Servia, and by the exertion
of all the influence she can muster, both at G>nstan-
tinople and at Athens, she seeks to comp^ with
Russian pi-edomimmce^* and where she has been cen-
* The fatal delu8i(Hi which has prevailed as to the Dature of the
alliance between Austria and Russia has led to the unfortunate
policy which England has pursued in Greece. We have set our-
selves in vehement opposition to what was termed the Austnan
influence — an influence with which our own should have com-
bined, as it was really and substantially, although not avowedly
or ostentatiously, opposed to the progress of Russia. The able
XVI,] FOREIGN POLICY. 439
sured for a weak or a culpable connivance in allow*
iog Uie establishment of the Czar on both banks of the
Danube, it will have been seen that she has yielded
to the compulsion of circumstances which she could
not ccmtroL It may be hoped that £}ngland is at
length awakening to a sense of her real interei^, and
that, before it be too late^ her altered policy may re*
gain the confidence of Austria. Should this unhap-
pily not be the case, and should Austria still be pressed
by circumstances which she cannot command, Russia
will continue to advance — she will in due time seize
the Dardanelles — ^and Austria, unsupporteii, will be
unable to resist her progress. Compelled to sustain
her apparent friendship with Russia, she will observe
an anxious and painful neutrality. She will preserve
a nominal freedom for the mouths of the Danube,
while Russia acquires the dominant influence over
Bulgaria and Servia, and renders Turkey her vassal.
At length the Sultan will be compelled to relinquish
even a nominal sovereignty over his European domi-
nions ; and Austria, by an involuntary concert Avith
Russia, will be forced to accept some portion of the
spoils — ^probably Bosnia and Albania — for the per-
mission to Russia to seize the rest. Enc^land and
o
diplomacy of the Czar remained in apparent inactivity, but in
reality fimning the flame of discord, while that of Austria and of
England competed for the predominant influence over the mind
and government of Otho ; until, after both were exhausted in the
conflict, Russia took possession of the field, and has established an
ascendancy which it will be very difficult to shake.
440 AUSTRIA. [CH.
France will remonstrate and demonstrate — ^but the
evil will be done. The Dardanelles will have been
secured. The kingdom of Greece may probably dis-
appear from the list of separate states ; and, either
by direct incorporation with Russia^ or by the recon-
struction of a nominally distinct Byzantine empire
under her control, European Turkey, with the nearer
Asiatic provinces, pass ere long to the domination of
the Russian sceptre.
Our notices of Austria are now concluded ; but,
having, with reference thereto, had occasion to trace
the progress of Russian aggrandizement in Eastern
Europe, it may not be inapposite to subjoin a few
obseiTations on our immediate British interests as
menaced thereby, and on the policy by which its fur-
ther progress may be arrested.
It has been sometimes inquired whether the inter-
rests of England be in reality likely to experience
any material injury from the invasions of Russia on
the power of Turkey. It has been asserted that the
immensity of our inland consumption renders us
mainly independent of external demand ; and that,
with our rapid increase of population, that consump-
tion will, under wise government, be proportionably
augmented. Let it be remembered, however, that
XVI.] CONCLUSION. 441
the annual value of our exports is now nearly
fifky millions sterling; that of one article, cotton,
alone, upwards of three hundred millions of pounds
weight are every year moulded by our machinery into
manufactured commodities, whereof a full moiety is
sent across the ocean in search of consumers ; and
that, in every other branch of industry also, the accu-
mulated powers of mechanism, capital, and intelli-
gence are combined, to augment the vastness of our
production. Let these circumstances be borne in
mind, and it will be seen how largely we depend on
external markets, and consequently on foreign and
colonial commerce. We are in fact pressed by the
necessity, not only of permitting no diminution of our
actual consumers, but even of continually increasing
their numbers in order to keep pace with our own accu-
mulating energies of supply ; and this necessity is the
more strongly enforced on our attention, when we per-
ceive rivals arising around us, and seeking to engross
even those markets which were formerly our own.
If we look to Germany, we see nearly the whole of it
comprised under the control of Prussia, in a system
essentially anti-English. If we extend our view
further, to that great power whose policy we have
been more immediately contemplating, we perceive
that wheresoever Russia has gained on other nations,
there she has established an ascendancy for herself,
both commercial and political. With a view to the
protection of native industry, she excluded British
manufactures from Poland, as well as from her more
442 AUSTRIA. [CH.
andent territories ; and even to Prussia, her close
ally^ she refuses a renewal of the conventions under
which Prussian manufactures have been admitted in
past years on a &voured footing into Russian Asia.
As she presses upon Turkey, the same prindpk
guides her policy, and is only modified in actipn by
the imperfectness of her power. Under the treaty of
Adrianople, she has secured to herself commercial
privileges over the whole of Turkey, unpossessed by
any other nation ; and her recent proceedings at the
mouth of the Danube and along the shores of Cir-
cassia evince her inclination to bend even dubious
and constructive rights to her own exclusive advan-
tage. These circumstances afford sufficient grounds
for very serious reflection, even in their immediate
effect of circumscribing the number of markets which
we have formerly supplied. They acquire a still
higher importance, when viewed in their political
bearing, as the evidences of power already obtained,
and the means of its future augmentation. Foreign
and colonial commerce-— that, at any rate, of a nation
marked out like our own for the rivalship of the
world — can be supported only by a preponderance of
political power : colonies, such as those of England,
must be retained by a naval superiority which defies
competition : and^ with regard to the trade between
independent nations, experience shows that it is far
less regulated by the asserted reciprocity of mere
demand and supply, than by those political con^dera-
tions which take a more complicated, though possi-
XV t.] CONCLUSION. 448
bly not a juster view, of iaternationid interests.
Where great nations, moreover, struggle for ascend-
ancy, it is not on the mere arena of the conflict tiiat
its results are experienced. The state of the new
world is immediately connected with the events of the
old; and any considerable change in the relative
power, however local, of two important European
nations, woidd greatly affect their relative interests
and influence in every quarter of the globe. Already
has the silent march of Russian policy secured a
triumphant supremacy at the court of Teheran, and
brought her influence into immediate and most dan-
gerous contact with our Asiatic possessions* Already
is she exclusively predominant in the northern pro-
vinces of European Turkey ; and the time may be not
far distant when she shall be called on, as the pro-
tecting friend of the Porte, and at its especial request,
to station a military force on the Bosphorus, and to
garrison the castles of the Dardanelles. IJer fleet of
thirty sail-of-the-line may then descend at pleasure
to the Mediterranean! while the voice of her imperial
command is re-echoed across the Asiatic continent
from the Hellespont to Uie Indus.
Although these new aggressions, like those which
have preceded them, might be made under the
garb of friendship and the plea of necessity, yet it
may be predicted that England would hardly re-
main a passive spectator while they were in pro-
gress ; still less that she would allow it to be pro-
claimed to distant lands, that, in those seas which
444 AUSTRIA. [CH.
have been the scene of her glory and her power, the
standard of St. George has bowed before the eagle of
the Czar. But if such may be anticipated as the high
determination of England, it becomes the more expe-
dient that she provide, before it be too late, such
alliances as may most effectively assist her views.
Without any wish to disparage the value of a cordial
union with France, it may be fairly doubted whether,
in circumstances so difficult, such an union is in itself
practicable between two great nations whose most
important interests, however at times combined for
some temporary purpose, are in themselves materially
opposed. Amid the complications of the eastern entan*
glements are comprised the question of Egyptian in-
dependence, with all its train of con§equences-^the
new relations of France arising out of her colonization
of Algiers — and her evident tendency to extend her
African possessions, at the expense of the states to the
east and to the west. As the disorganization of Turkey
advances, either of these points, to say nothing of others
to which I am unwilling now to allude, might too
probably sever her apparent cordiality with Eng-
land ; while the progress of Russia would not impro-
bably give rise to new combinations utterly opposite
to those which now exist. That such might not be
the case, that England might even in that event
have the benefit of French co-operation, must be the
desire of every British stateman ; but this desire will
not render him blind to the opposite contingency, or
paralyze his efforts to provide against its results.
XVI.] CONCLUSION. 445
Very diflferent is the position of Austria : her
interests are, on this great question, the same
as our own, and no commercial or colonial rivalship
tends to impede their full operation. Among poli-
tical errors, none has been greater than the idea that
Turkey could be secured, or Russia be arrested in
her progress, by the development of merely naval
resources. It is by the concurrent aid of military
means, or of diplomacy resting on military means,
that these great objects can be alone attained, if in-
deed we may yet venture to look for their attainment ;
and Austria is the only power who, from her mighty
military organization and her central locality, might,
if supported by the western nations, be still success-
ful in the lists. Should it be possible to bring her
powerful means into full co-operation with those of
England> and, as we may hope, with those of France
also, it may not be even yet too late to regain the
forfeited confidence of the Turkish sovereign, and to
sustain the independence of the Ottoman empire.
POSTSCRIPT.
While these sheets have been in progress through the
press, the march of events has been rapidly onwards.
In Servia, another act has been performed of the
drama which is to conclude in the entire subjugation
of that important principality to Russia. When
Prince Milosch was placed at the head of the civil
government, it was settled that his two sons should
be sent for their education to Petersburg. This
education, with its attendant train of opinions and
attachments, having been completed as to the eldest
son, and in progress as to the second, the father has
been displaced, and the younger prince (in conse-
quence of the sudden decease of his elder brother)
nominated to succeed him, with a council of regency
during his minority. The immediate circiunstances
which have in appearance led to the change are in
themselves immaterial. Whatsoever they may ha.ve
been, they tend to popular dissension, political disor-
ganization, and an increased expediency for Russian
interference : and if Cas has, I know not on what
authority, been suggested) an anti-Russian influence
takes to itself credit for the movement, this would
only form an additional instance to the many which
have come under my notice, of that admirable adroit-
ness with which Russia renders her opponents the
unconscious instruments of her own designs.
Further towards the East, the outbreak of hosti-
lities between the sultan and the viceroy, in defiance
POSTSCRIPT. 447
of the asserted determination of all the European
states to prevent them, — the untimely decease of
Mahmoud at the precise period when those hostilities
commenced, — and the decisive victory since obtained
by the Egyptian over the Ottoman forces — all give
reason to apprehend the approach of that period
when the interests of nations now in nominal alli-
ance may stand in opposition to each other; and
when, unless a great change take place in the rela-
tions and practice of European diplomacy at Con-
stantinople, Russia will take her permanent station on
the shores of the Hellespont. Whether or not the
further progress of hostile conflict be suspended for
a time — ^whether or not the semblance of a mutual
compact be arranged between the leading European
powers — still, crippled resources and financial penury,
popular agitation without, and courtly intrigue with-
in, will combine to subvert what little of stability yet
remains to the Ottoman throne ; and circumstances,
over which neither he nor his native advisers have
any control, will too probably render the youthful
sovereign dependent, even for his personal safety, on
the protection of the Czar.
Aware of the embarrassments to which, in various
ways, these occurrences may lead, the Austrian go-
vernment appear to be pursuing a wise and judicious
course. They have republished in all the provinces
those laws which establish universal toleration, and
prohibit proselytising practices and controversial
preachings; especially commanding their rigorous
enforcement, against the Romish as against the
448 POSTSCRIPT.
non-Romish clergy. In Hungary, with a respect for
constitutional law, of which the last century affords
few examples, they have assembled the diet at the
exact period enjoined by the statutes ; and have con-
fined the " Royal Propositions " to objects on which
no opposition can be fairly expected. They are aug-
menting the military force in the vicinity of those
provinces which, although nominally Turkish, are
essentially Russian; and generally throughout the
empire they are taking the most vigorous measures
to supply whatsoever may be defective in the nume*
rical or material efficiency of the army.
On the subject of Turkey, it is not easy to foresee
the precise line of policy which the force of circum-
stances may compel Austria to adopt. There can be
1310 doubt of her desire to sustain what yet remains of
Ottoman independence ; or of the eagerness with which,
had the relations between the two countries enabled her
to do so, she would have combined her strongest efforts
with those of England, in an honest concert to avert
that consummation which appears to be approaching.
Whether there be enough of mutual confidence and
of political sagacity to admit of such a concert being
won effected — whether, if effected, it would be now
successful — or whether Austria may be driven by the
dubious policy of the Western powers to adopt that
other alternative to which in the last chapter allusion
has been made ; — these are momentous questions on
which I abstain from offering an opinion.
THE END.
London: Printed by William Clowxs and Sons, Duke Street, LambeUi.
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